— going into milk, dairy products in collaboration with govt

GOVERNMENT is in the process of collaborating with the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) to manufacture milk and dairy products.

This was disclosed by Finance Minister Winston Jordan last Friday, at the commissioning of Distribution Services Limited’s (DSL’s) $1billion warehouse at Diamond, East Bank Demerara. DSL is a subsidiary of DDL.

The minister, without going into details about the project, added that the government looks forward to this partnership coming on stream soon, since milk and dairy products account for a huge chunk of the national import bill.

CARICOM countries, Guyana included, import more than US$4B annually in food and this has led to calls for diversified agricultural practices and increased outputs and for each CARICOM member state to reduce its food import bill.

For years the local dairy industry has been underproductive, moving from a lucrative value-added industry decades ago, to a bottom-house business controlled by local cattle farmers, mainly in rural areas.

About 25 years ago, the Livestock Development Company (LiDCo) closed its door and its flagship enterprise at Moblissa — the 4,000-acre dairy farm which was complemented by 25 private satellite farms.

Prior to the closure of the company, the Georgetown Milk Pasteurisation Plant, for the most part, produced composite products: blends of locally produced fresh milk and re-constituted milk from imported skimmed milk powder and butter fat.