Israeli and Indian companies to collaborate on South Sudan mega dairy project

AlefBet said that the design work will require a wide range of complex infrastructural solutions. The project is expected to include five dairy farms, each of which will contain some 2,000 cows and adjacent milking parlors, making the facility one of the largest of its kind on the African continent, according to AlefBet.

Some of the required infrastructural plans will include establishing a clean water supply, providing a reliable and continuous power source and supplying proper cooling systems for the barns in the hot climate, explained Daphna Regev, director of business development and management.

In addition, the project will need to ensure that the cows have either imported or locally-manufactured food supplies, and that a mechanism exists for properly refrigerated transport and marketing of milk and dairy products throughout the country, she added.

Designs are under way

Regev told DairyReporter that she is hoping to hear from the Indian entrepreneurs within the next few months to get the construction started.

“We’ve started with the design, but we won’t start the construction until we can see they have the budget,”​ Regev said.

AlefBet also designed the largest Israeli-led project ever conducted in the milk industry – the TH dairy farm in Vietnam. The $200m project includes 15,000 cows and covers an area of 800,000 square meters, requiring massive infrastructural planning and the transportation of cows arriving by ship from New Zealand, the firm said.

“That opened a few months ago,”​ she added.

“They are already averaging 10,000 liters per cow, which is very successful. This project was funded by a private bank, it went quickly.”​

Jump in production

Regev said that importing cows for the Vietnam project was difficult, and it could be the same with the South Sudan project.

“We have to find them, then import them, and have housing already established,”​ she said.

Kobi Bogin, CEO of AlefBet, added that in countries that have adopted the Israeli dairy farming model, parlors have experienced a more than twofold jump in milk production.

Such farms around the world are making use of advanced technologies that focus on feeding management, comfortable conditions for the cattle, health monitoring systems and quick and easy conveyance of animals to and from the parlors.

Cooling solutions needed

“Healthy cows that receive comfortable conditions produce more milk, also benefiting the farmer,”​ Bogin said.

“One of the challenges in establishing a dairy farm, something that will be especially important in South Sudan, is cooling in the summer months, as hot conditions reduce milk production sharply.​

“The Israeli climate requires cooling solutions that are critical in tropical and semi-desert countries.”​

While AlefBet, a multidisciplinary firm made up of architects, engineers and designers, is conducting the planning for the Indian entrepreneurs on the ground, the project is expected to integrate the technologies of a number of Israeli milking companies.

Company active in Chinese market

AlefBet has been involved in planning enormous dairy projects around the world, particularly in Asia. In China, the company planned the country’s largest – and the second largest globally – dairy establishment, worth about $500 million. The expansive facilities enable some eight million residents of the Beijing area to enjoy fresh milk daily, the company said.

Each year, China establishes about 100 new dairy farms, and AlefBet said it continues to take part in the industry there. For over a decade, the company has been particularly involved in helping the Shanghai-based Bright Dairy, a subsidiary of Bright Food, develop the dairy sector.

In India, meanwhile, due to the sanctity of the cow in the subcontinent, AlefBet was instrumental in planning “hostels” suited to treat wandering cows as well as nursing homes for elderly cows whose milk production has diminished.

“The achievement of the Israeli cow, which occupies first place in the milk production world with more than 10,000 liters annually, has aroused the envy of many countries that wish to set up their dairy barns and milking parlors according to the successful Israeli model,”​ the company statement added.