DAKAR: Senegal has three million cattle, but it is imported European powdered milk that is found at the breakfast table, in coffee or local yoghurt as poor infrastructure keeps fresh milk from consumers. In a Dakar suburb, 'milk powder with vegetable fat content' from France is poured into large tanks and mixed with filtered water at the Jaboot factory to make local favourites like curdled milk and yoghurt and cereal mix, or 'thiakri.' Reducing dependence on imported foodstuffs is a challenge on the continent, and new African Union leader, Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika has prioritised food security to ensure 'Africa is able to feed Africa.' In five years, Senegal has more than doubled its bill for imported milk from $52 million in 2002 to $110 billion in 2007, said Djiby Dia, researcher with the Senegalese Institute of Agricultural Research. Milk abounds in the largely rural country. But its mainly traditional methods of production are irregular, according to the seasons and are unable to cover the needs of the entire population. Mostly impassable farm roads and an insufficient number of refrigerated trucks make reaching consumers all the more difficult. When the rainy season arrives in the isolated northern region of Ferlo, an abundance of milk and a lack of infrastructure means 'some farmers pour their milk on the ground to be licked up by the cows,' said Dia, the author of a thesis on the 'geography of milk' in Senegal. Production channels need to be organised, professionalised and encouraged -- but the imported powder has already invaded city markets, as well as those in the bush. A debate over whether higher customs duties should be imposed on imported milk powder has largely fallen by the wayside as the biggest importers constitute an influential lobby and have little interest in paying more.