The small-scale dairy DJOM KOSSAM

Aguibou Sall, Malian and agronomist and Stephan Wullschleger, Swiss and food scientist founded the small-scale dairy DJOM KOSSAM^[1]DJOM KOSSAM is Peul, the language of the farmers is West Africa. DJOM KOSSAM means „Woman who sells milk“. It is important to know that in Mali men are in charge of herding and women to sell milk.Normally women carry a traditional boul on their head to transport milk to the market. in 2005. The vision of DJOM KOSSAM is to become a large and profitable dairy, which only treats local milk and no reconstituted milk from imported milk powder.

In 2008, the founders decided to expand the small dairy and to collect milk directly from farmers in the villages Siby and Bancoumana (both around 50 km from Bamako). In addition they set up the logistics to transport milk to the capital. The business plan of DJOM KOSSAM got awarded with a special price at Venture 2008^[2]Swiss start-up competition organized by McKinsey & Company and ETH Zurich (www.venture.ch) and DJOM KOSSAM attracted the first investor.

DJOM KOSSAM survived in its short business history some challenging situations and sometimes could count on the support of the association Pro Milk Mali. For example: Farmers supplied unexpected high milk volumes during the rainy season and delayed payments by clients reduced the working capital strongly.

In 2012, DJOM KOSSAM had to stop all its activities for 25 days during the political unrests and fridges got stolen during the military coup. The small-scale dairy unfortunately also had once to send an employee to the hospital after a traffic accident and take on costly reparation on its vehicles. Since 2013, DJOM KOSSAM expands its business and increases its profitability.

Today, the small dairy has 10 employees and collects milk from about 75 farmer families. It sells 300 – 400 liters of local fresh milk daily to about 20 shops. With this the small dairy pays regular income to people, who sometimes haven’t had the chance for a scholar education. DJOM KOSSAM runs a successful operational business but still depends on selected support for some investments.