HIGH HOPES: Shabaz, proudly dotted with his growing heard.
Meet Shahbaz – A young and enterprising individual set out to carve his niche in Pakistan’s dairy industry. His inspiring story leads us to believe that just a spoonful of enthusiasm and drive can make it all possible. Shahbaz had just passed his matriculation examination and had huge aspirations to join the police force but unfortunately failed to enlist. This did not deter him and he was determined to improve circumstances for himself and his family. He had high hopes to turn things around and wasn’t going to settle with his lot in life.
Unlike many who resign to fate, Shahbaz could have given up at this point. He could have accepted himself as a failure and spent his life having resigned to fate. However, he did not lose hope, strong- willed as he was. He started a small dairy business with two cows.
With endless hours of hard work working both day and night, Shahbaz’s business slowly and gradually grew. Today he has 50 animals with an average yield of 17-20 liters of milk per day. Shahbaz is enthusiastic about growing his business further and plans to add ten more cows this year. Shahbaz owes a huge part of his success to Nestlé, having supported him over the years. He says, “The beauty of business with Nestlé is that I get weekly payment”. Apart from providing him much needed liquidity, Nestlé’s training and expert tips has also helped him manage his business better and has increased his understanding of the milk industry. Nestlé’s Sarsabz training farms provides free training to farmers on modern farming techniques with the average of 2000 farmers per year. They plan to step up training by investing in another 30,000 farmers over the next five years.