Dairiboard bails First Lady out after blood milk claims

This follows the Swiss-based food giant, Nestle, abruptly terminating its contract with the First Lady amid threats of an international boycott of its products because of links with the Zimbabwean dictator. Nestle last week bowed to international pressure to cease trading with the wife of the Zimbabwean dictator after revelations that the company was buying milk from a farm owned by Grace Mugabe.

The Gushungo Dairy Estate has been controlled by Mrs Mugabe since, according to other dairymen, the previous white owner was forced by a campaign of violence to sell his property to the authorities for a knock-down price. The Telegraph revealed at the weekend that Gushungo Dairy Estate sells up to a million litres of milk a year to Nestl Zimbabwe’s manufacturing plant on the outskirts of Harare.

The purchases provoked outrage in Britain and South Africa, with a rights group in Zimbabwe’s southern neighbour starting a campaign for a consumer boycott of the firm. Nestle announced in a statement that it would no longer buy milk from Gushungo Dairy Estate from October 4 when DZL would take over as preferred buyer. DZL sources said despite its financial challenges, the publicly-quoted company had to be roped in as a last-minute replacement for Nestle Zimbabwe.

Under the arrangement DZL would give first preference to milk from Gushungo Dairy Estate, a development likely to affect other dairy farmers who normally depend on the former state-owned company for sales. DZL has lately struggled to satisfy demand for dairy products due to problems in purchasing milk from farmers.

Throughout these developments Nestl has consistently denied any wrongdoing or breaking Swiss law, but issued a statement last week saying that it had only started buying milk from the farm, and seven other dairies, in February because the state Dairy Board of Zimbabwe had stopped doing so, and “the dairy industry was at real risk of collapse”.