–as DDL finalises project components with Israeli group

SENIOR officials from the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs met recently with Demerara Distillers Limited’s Chairman, Komal Samaroo and his delegation, who are visiting Israel to finalise a project with the LR Group for the establishment of a dairy farm in Guyana.

Michal Gur-Aryeh, Director of Department for Economic Relations with Latin America, the Caribbean and Africa in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: “We welcome this project, which will be the first state-of-the-art dairy farm in the Caribbean and will make a significant contribution to food security in the region. Israel is a world leader in dairy farming and other agricultural technologies. We look forward to enhancing our economic cooperation with Guyana.”

Yosef Levi Sfari, Director of the Department for the Caribbean in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said too: “Israel is seeking to deepen its relations with Guyana. We are pleased that Ambassador Itai Bardov will be presenting his credentials to President Irfaan Ali in the coming weeks.”

Chairman of Demerara Distillers Limited, Komal Samaroo, said that he was pleased to collaborate with the LR Group of Israel on the development of this transformational project which is a significant investment in pursuance of DDL diversification strategy.

He related: “The LR Group brings to this Joint Venture expertise and experience in implementing similar projects in Papua New Guinea, Vietnam, Angola, and Philippines among others countries.”

Samaroo welcomed the expression of support for this project by the Government of Israel through its Foreign Ministry.

Ami Lustig, Founder and CEO, LR Group, said: “LR Group is honoured to form a joint venture with DDL, one of Guyana’s leading companies, for the development of a 500-milking cows dairy farm and the transfer of modern Israeli agro-technologies and know-how.

“We are excited at the launch of this project, which LR Group regards as the first step towards broader cooperation with Guyana, in the areas of commercial agriculture, water supply, renewable energy, healthcare and more.”

It was reported last year that DDL in partnership with the LR Group is considering a location at Moblissa, Soesdyke-Linden Highway, for the establishment of the much anticipated state-of-the-art dairy farm operations.

The operation is designed to supply DDL’s TOPCO milk plant with fresh cows’ milk for pasteurisation and packaging, and will produce over four million litres of fresh milk per year when operationalised.

The multimillion-dollar project would require approximately 600 acres of land, create dozens of jobs and see the importation of 500 pregnant heifers to supply the milk production.

The project is seen as an important part of the national and regional food security mechanism currently taking centre focus in CARICOM.

It will play a role in assisting to decrease the importation of dairy products and be part of CARICOM’s goal of 25 by 2025 (reducing the region’s food-import bill from extra regional sources by 25 per cent by 2025).

“While we designed a facility to package juice, Guyana was importing most of its milk at a significant cost, so we decided to build in the features to be able to pack [the] milk and supply the domestic market. As an interim measure, we are reconstituting powdered milk but the goal has always been to integrate backwards into the domestic dairy sector,” Samaroo noted.

The dairy farm project will be utilising a zero grazing system, which means that the animals would be enclosed in their shed in cooling environments, and not be grazed outdoors.