A business case for digital fat testing machines

This brief makes the business case for how digital fat testing (DFT) machines are revolutionising the dairy value chain in Bangladesh.

The DFT Initiative is a joint intervention of CARE and BRAC Dairy to promote fairness and transparency within the dairy market of Bangladesh.

In this system the producers bring their batch of milk to a DFT collection point, where the machine automatically calculates the fat content of the milk. The higher the fat content, the higher the price per litre of the milk is paid out to the dairy producer. The ultimate goal is to make DFT machines as the standard practice of collecting milk within the Bangladeshi dairy industry.

The scaling up of this model is correlated with the expansion of dairy input markets and strong relations with value chain actors and service providers both horizontally and vertically.