Baby Milk: Patronage Soars despite Breast Feeding Campaigns

Last week’s M2 weekly survey reveals that the baby food segment of the market, especially the milk category, still enjoys enormous patronage despite the numerous campaigns for exclusive breast feeding.

Most traders who spoke to M2 say that there is no considerable drop in sales despite the campaigns. At Iyana-Ipaja market, Christopher Ibe, a trader, is of the opinion that exclusive breast feeding has become a luxury nursing mothers can hardly afford to give their babies due to the tight schedule of most mothers.

At Ogba market, one Jessica, a younger mother who works with a Micro Finance Bank corroborated Christopher’s opinion. “Breast feeding is very good. But I can bet that most nursing mothers in Lagos can not afford it because of their busy schedules. This makes baby foods the next option,” she explains adding that she always double checks the expiry date.

At Iyana-Ipaja, Bayo Adekoya, another trader, sees it from a different angle. According to him, a lot of young mothers do not like the idea of exclusive breast feeding but prefer to place their babies on baby foods.