Process butter for wealth

Butter is a spread made from solidified cream. Cream is taken from milk and then churned.
Eventually Butter bubbles form, and start to clump together.
At the end of this process two products result: Butter and the liquid left over, which is called Butter milk.
Ms Eseza Byentaro, a resident of Nyakahita in Kiruhura District, has been doing this business for years named: ‘Amarebe Ghee’.
She shares that this business is very lucrative and can improve one’s living condition for better.

What is butter?
Butter is a spread made from solidified cream. Cream is taken from milk and then churned. Eventually Butter bubbles form, and start to clump together.
At the end of this process two products result: Butter and the liquid left over, which is called Butter milk.
Ms Eseza Byentaro, a resident of Nyakahita in Kiruhura District has been doing this business for years named: ‘Amarebe Ghee’.
She shares that this business is very lucrative and can improve one’s living condition for better.

Startup capital
On average, one needs about Shs2 million to buy the equipment used in processing butter, containers for packaging and milk which is the main raw material used.
“With this starting capital on a every month you can be able to produce about 250-300 kilogrammes of butter each sold at Shs12,000,” Ms Byentaro shares.

Earnings
This means every month can make between Shs3 million and Shs3.6 million. This is translated into to Shs36 million or Shs43.2 million annual sales depending on the quantities produced.
For this kind of business, Ms Byentaro one has to stock enough product to keep in business especially during the time when milk season is hike.
“If you don’t bulk product you might be out of business especially in the months of June, July into August,” she shared.
The other challenge she experiences is lack of enough capital to produce in bulk.
She said: “I have always wanted to expand my business but I don’t have enough money to produce in bulk and distribute to different towns because the product is highly demanded.”
Her butter is distributed to shop owners in the urban areas especially in western Uganda and sometimes mobile vehicles move it to different places.

Production process
Ideally, the main raw material for producing butter is milk which can be accessed from the local collecting centres.
Milk is largely produced in western and central part of the country.
Through churning milk, cream-butter is made.
The churning process breaks down a membrane around the butter fat molecules, allowing them to adhere to each other, thus coagulating to form butter.
Butter forms in the final two minutes of the churning process.
Then salt is added to the butter as a preservative, slowing down the growth of bacteria in the butter. Today, it is added mostly as flavouring for those who are used to or prefer the taste of salted butter.

Incentives
Mr John Musajjakawa, the senior investment advisor Uganda Investment Authority, said with this kind of business, the incentive government offers is the removal of taxes levied as a way of promoting agro-processing.