WHENEVER a new product, especially a good quality food product sold at an affordable price, announces its advent in the market, consumers feel a sense of pleasure and welcome it. In this offering, we will be addressing such a product – fresh cow’s milk. Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) subsidiary, TOPCO, and an Israeli company, LR Group, have agreed to launch a modern dairy industry in Guyana. The lead figure on the Guyana side is Mr. Komal Samaroo who has proved himself a very fitting successor to the late and great Dr. Yesu Persaud. The first products will come on the market in 2024, but consumers are so enthused that they would like to express their appreciation and welcome them now.

From the 1850s until after Independence in the 1960s, Guyana was self-sufficient in fresh cow’s milk. The Indian indentured immigrants kept cows and always had a surplus of milk which found its way into the distribution chain. By the 1870s, several bigger dairy farmers emerged, especially in the Mahaicony area.

The milkmen on their bicycles with two large cans of milk were a common sight on the roads in the early hours of the morning and the late hours of the afternoon, delivering milk to regular customers and selling milk to those who called out to them. There grew up a large corpus of stories of the milkman’s trade, many of them humourous, and diluting their milk with water was a common accusation of the milk vendors. The State employed several inspectors who were empowered to test any vendor’s milk to ascertain that it was not diluted; selling diluted milk was a criminal offence and the magistrate courts frequently heard such charges.

In the 1950s, the State established a milk marketing corporation headquartered in Kingston which collected milk countrywide and sold fresh milk and pasteurised milk in bottles. Though the milk produced was of good quality and was popular, the business failed largely because of poor management and political interference from a growing authoritarian State.

The other industrial-style dairy producer was a modest operation established at Bel Air by Bookers, a conglomerate controlling most of the country’s economy. Though the Bookers dairy produced milk of good quality and middle-class Georgetown residents bought their milk there, the dairy was not meant to be a fully commercial venture but rather to supply milk to the Bookers’ staff, many of whom were expatriates. With the nationalisation of Booker’s Holdings after the country became independent, their dairy farm was discontinued.

From the 1960s until after Independence in 1966, widespread political disturbances resulted in the disruption of farming and all other areas of the economy and the emigration of almost half of the country’s population; inevitably, the entire production and selling of fresh milk became disrupted.

From 1970 to the mid-1980s, fresh and imported milk became unobtainable since, owing to foreign exchange shortages, very little could be imported. It was only after the middle of the 1980s that milk products were again imported with the advent of the Free Market.

Milk powders, condensed milk, and canned evaporated milk dominated the market. Such kinds of milk were imported from various countries including Holland, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany, and Belgium. Fresh cow’s milk could only be obtained in farming communities that reared cattle. It is believed that a good percentage of Georgetown residents had never tasted fresh cow’s milk!

DDL’s desire to resuscitate fresh milk production and sale is a much-needed and timely action. Through its subsidiary, TOPCO, the company has agreed with an Israeli company, LR Group, to rebuild a Guyana Dairy Industry. Negotiations with LR had begun in 2021, but owing to the aftermath of COVID and other circumstances, it is only now that substantive movement has started.

The Guyana side is led by Mr. Komal Samaroo, Chairman and CEO of DDL, which is known to be one of Guyana’s most thorough businessmen. He does full research and investigation into any venture his company enters and DDL and LR have collaborated on a feasibility study that explored such areas as land selection, market research, financial and technical analysis, and the examination of the protocols related to international standards for fresh milk production.

In keeping with the same trend, Mr. Samaroo and his team visited Israel and were able to observe dairy farms and related operations, such as drip irrigation technology which could be employed to produce fodder for the cows in all seasons. LR, in a similar manner, has visited the International Food Security Conference and Expo held last year, embarked on several field visits and discussions with relevant agencies including Lands and Surveys Commission, Livestock Development Authority, NAREI, and CARICOM, and was also accorded an audience with His Excellency, the President, Dr. Irfaan Ali.

The Project, a state-of-the-art dairy farm, will be at Moblissa and will cost US$16 million. Agreements have been reached on the final design of the farm, the expenditure of financial resources, procurement of the first batch of animals, as well as the equipment, the shareholding structure of the company Demerara Dairy Inc., and the research that would facilitate the manufacture of value-added products.

The Project will bring many advantages to the country: It will once again provide the population with wholesome fresh milk at an affordable price; it will in time make available by-products such as ghee, butter, cheese, and yoghurt; would allow for important import substitution; would strengthen the food security of Guyana and the Caribbean; and it would be able to share in the US$6 billion CARICOM food import market. This Dairy Farm Project is not only in the interest of DDL and its subsidiary DDI and the Consumers but also in the interest of the nation as a whole and we look forward to the State’s assistance to it so it could quickly grow and contribute to national development.