From 50 to 300 Litres: Turning milk into markets

When women gain knowledge and skills, communities thrive and livelihoods grow

In Njoro, an agricultural town in Kenya, dairy farming and milk processing sustain thousands of families. Every morning, farmers deliver fresh milk to collection points and small processing facilities work to turn a perishable product into income and opportunity.

At the heart of this ecosystem is a young woman who chose learning over loss, and action over limitation. Her journey shows what becomes possible when women gain access to skills, opportunity and support, communities grow stronger.

As we continue to mark International Women’s Day, we celebrate women who are transforming local economies through hard decisions, new skills and resilient leadership.

I’m Josephine Wairimu, Managing Director of Seasons Springs Limited. And for a long time, growth felt just out of reach,” she says.

Josephine and her husband ran their small manufacturing business – producing bottled water, purified water and yogurt, almost entirely on their own. On good days, they made 50 to 100 litres of yogurt. On bad days, much of it was lost. Yogurt puffing caused by poor milk quality became a costly problem. The market rejected their products and the company faced continued losses.

At one point, they made the hard decision to temporarily shut down the factory – not to give up, but to learn.

Turning knowledge into growth
Through Happy Cow Dairy and its consortium partner Fooster Solutions in partnership with GIZ’s Agri-Business Facility for Africa (ABF), Josephine and her husband received subsidized, hands-on training alongside more than 200 women and youth.

“I didn’t know how to properly test raw milk,” Josephine explains. “We didn’t understand how premature fermentation caused puffing. Once we learned that, everything changed.”

She learned that poor-quality raw milk, untested and unmeasured was the root cause of yogurt puffing. For the first time, milk was tested at the farmer level and again upon arrival at the factory. Acidity levels were measured and processes were improved, hence improving milk quality.

From survival to scaling
Today, Seasons Springs produces 300 litres of yogurt per day, with quality so consistent that product returns have nearly disappeared.

“Before we went to Fooster, it was just my husband and me running production,” Josephine says. “As we grew from 100 to 150, then 200, 250 and now 300 litres, we also added more workers as our milk capacity increased.”

As production grew, so did opportunity. Milk collection expanded from 10 households to 35 farming families per day, strengthening local supply chains and incomes. What began as a two-person operation now supports 10 employees, creating stable jobs in for women and youth in Njoro.

Alice, one of the production workers, shares what that change means to her:

“When I joined, I didn’t know anything. Now I have skills. I earn to support my family. We feel safe, protected and respected. We are happy to be here.”

Josephine’s story is about rights: the right to knowledge, to economic participation, to lead a business. It is about justice: fair access to skills, markets and decent work. And it is about action, investing in women not as beneficiaries, but as drivers of enterprise and community growth.

Turning constraints into innovation
Even with growth and improved processes, challenges in milk processing remain – especially ensuring consistent quality during pasteurization and cooling.

But Josephine isn’t waiting for perfect conditions; she has developed a local method using chilled water to accelerate cooling while exploring long-term equipment solutions.

“We are not where we used to be,” she says. “We can pay rent comfortably. We employ people. We support farmers. And we are still growing.”

Josephine’s journey reminds us of what happens when women gain access to skills, systems and support: businesses scale, communities benefit and change becomes sustainable.

This initiative is supported within the framework of the Matching Grant Fund (MGF), as part of the Joint Action “Business Support Facility for Resilient Agricultural Value Chains”, co-funded by the European Union under the Samoa Agreement with the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) and the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by GIZ.