Bars that only serve milk, a healthy trend in Kigali

Cows are very important to Rwandan culture and symbolize wealth, prosperity, and identity, and are still used today to pay a bridal dowry or to give as a gift. Since Paul Kagame's government implemented the program called Girinka in 2006, after seeing the extent of malnutrition and stunting in Rwandan children, milk production and consumption have doubled. The program was established with the central objective of reducing child malnutrition rates and increasing the household incomes of poor farmers. These objectives are directly achieved through increased access to and consumption of milk, by providing a cow to families.

Milk is, as a result, also culturally very important. In the mid-1990s, the city of Kigali, Rwanda, was full of small metal and wooden kiosks with the sign "Amata na Fanta Bikonje (cold milk and soft drinks), but they disappeared with the urban planning to beautify the streets of the capital, giving way to the current establishments known as milk bars.

When Hasna Biryogo, 33, got married three years ago and planned to start a family, she left her job as a sales assistant and decided to start her own business, thinking especially about what she could offer her future children. She opened a milk bar in Nyamirambo, the Muslim quarter of Kigali. Yes, a milk bar. As strange as it may sound, it is a widespread business in the capital of Rwanda, where milk is basically served, whether fresh or fermented. These are the so-called amata meza or milk zone.

Her establishment is simple and clean, almost immaculately white. A 300-liter milk cooling tank dominates the entire room. A couple of tables and several white plastic chairs, along with a small counter at the back, make up the rest of the space. "My initial investment three years ago was the purchase of this milk container and an order of 200 liters of milk," she tells us while continuously serving her clients, moving back and forth from the tank to the tables with a large jug of milk in her hand, "and since then I haven't stopped selling," she adds proudly.

She serves uninterruptedly from eight in the morning until ten at night, and throughout the day there is a constant trickle of customers who consume about 200 liters of milk per day. "Customers who come at midday drink the milk here, plain or with some refreshment, and it serves as their lunch, while most of those who come in the afternoon fill their milk cans to take home," she comments, satisfied. In addition, every morning before opening, Hasna delivers milk to various hotels, restaurants, and cafes in the area.

Hasna explains to us that her milk comes from Nyanza Milk Industries Ltd., the second largest dairy company in the country, and that the market for amata meza in Kigali is basically divided between the two most important industries in the sector, Inyange Industries Ltd. and Nyanza Milk Industries Ltd., which open milk bar franchises throughout the city, and the amata meza independents from other smaller or family-run dairies that are supplied by small farmers.

A serving of milk as a substitute for lunch

We only have to walk a couple of streets to find ourselves at Alexis's Inyange milk zone It's twelve noon, rush hour, and about twenty boda-boda drivers, the motorcycle taxis that flood the city, are taking a break and chatting animatedly while having their ration of milk, which for many will serve as a substitute for lunch that day. Alexis Musoni, 26 years old, works in one of the 76 Inyange milk zones currently in Kigali. Inyange Industries, Rwanda's leading agricultural product processing company, opened its first milk zone in Kigali in 2014, selling pasteurized milk at half the price of its packaged milk, and thus began the proliferation of milk bars in the Rwandan capital, which have been replicated in all districts of the city.

"We opened just ten months ago and we haven't stopped serving our customers from seven in the morning until ten at night," Alexis tells us as he fills a takeaway milk jug from the enormous steel refrigerator that takes up practically all the space. In the small premises, there is barely room for the large fresh milk container, a refrigerator with other company dairy products, such as yogurts and some juices, a shelf with mineral water, a chair, and a small counter acting as a barrier at the door. Most customers bring their own containers and buy milk daily to take home, others drink jugs of fresh or fermented milk in one gulp standing on the street in front of the counter, while others pass the time at the tables of the neighboring bar, whose business has been boosted and new clientele brought by the arrival of the milk zone.

Elie Niyishobora, 23 years old, entered this market just two months ago. He partnered with his childhood friend Athanase Hafashimana, 24 years old, and after thinking about what business they could start together, they decided to open a small amata meza, as it did not require a large investment. "In the beginning, the business worked very well, but we have been losing customers in recent weeks," Elie tells us with a resigned smile. His premises are small and dark, with low tables and stools and a counter with all kinds of snacks to accompany the milk and several thermoses with hot milk, white coffee (hot milk with a little tea) and cereal-based porridge. Every morning the milk delivery man arrives with his bicycle and delivers him 10 liters of milk from a nearby farm, which is all Elie manages to sell in a day, unlike his neighbors Hasna and Alexis, who sell between 150 and 200 liters of fresh milk per day.

In front of the popular Kimironko market, in Kigali, there is a milk bar where people constantly come and go. The place is spacious and apart from the large milk container at the entrance, there are several tables where customers gather. The hustle and bustle is incessant, while a boy in a school uniform calmly dips his biscuit in a jug of hot milk, two men are bringing in milk cans that they unload from a small truck. Antoine Muyange, 37, serving tables and Madeleine Uwera, 34, serving milk to go from a window that opens onto the street.

We have trouble finding a place until a lady about 50 years old signals us from the back of the room and makes us space next to her. In perfect French, Marie Médiatrice Mukamabano tells us about her life as she sips a large jug of ikivuguto (fermented milk). "I came to the city to visit a friend, and before taking the bus back I went into the amata meza to have milk, as it is cheap, nutritious, and takes away my hunger," she tells us between laughs. This jug of milk will be her meal until she returns home to the Rwamagana district, about two hours from Kigali.