DDL MAINTAINS ITS REPUTATION OF EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION AS IT EMBARKS ON THE MILK INDUSTRY

Dec 08, 2024 Consumer Concerns, Features / Columnists, News, Waterfalls Magazine

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 CONSUMER CONCERNS

(DDL MAINTAINS ITS REPUTATION)

By  PAT  DIAL

Kaieteur News- During the era of Slavery, milk was never part of the diet of slaves and whatever milk was used came in small quantities from the few cows and goats kept for some of the European planter class.  After Emancipation, the situation did not change and the Freedmen continued not to use milk.  Amerindian people also did not use milk.  The use of milk and milk products like yogurt (dahi) came to be used more widely with the introduction of Indian indentured immigrants who knew all aspects of cow-minding and milk production.  Indeed, cows and milk were an integral part of Indian life and culture and were used even in religious ceremonies.  By the 1860’s many ex-indentured and even indentured servants kept a few cows and produced more milk than they needed and the surplus was sold in the village or estate.  With the availability of milk, the culture of the use of milk was again resuscitated among the planter class, the Freedmen of the villages and among the newer waves of indentured servants such as the Madeiran Portuguese and Chinese.  By the 1880’s, a milk industry had been established and milkmen, riding their bicycles, delivered milk to homes or sold in the streets.

The growth of a milk industry necessitated Legislation, in particular to protect the consumer.  The new Legislation dealt with the health of the cows, especially to guard against tuberculosis but more particularly with the quality of milk being sold.  Many milk sellers diluted their milk with water and a number of milk inspectors were appointed to test at random milk being sold.  In the newspapers at the time and in the court records, there are many examples of sellers being prosecuted for diluted milk.  After World War II, the old-style vending of milk produced by the vendor faded away and various efforts were made to establish an industrialized milk industry including producing pasteurized milk.  None of these was sustained and the population was forced to use evaporated milk and finally milk powder.  The Demerara Distillers Ltd (DDL)  project of establishing an industrialized milk industry now offers the ultimate solution to Guyana’s milk problems.

DDL, in its typical style, did a thorough social, economic and technical research before embarking on the Industry.  Normally, a company embarking on such a project would have approached Holland or Germany for technical partnership and expertise, but DDL is using an Israeli partner and CEO Komal Samaroo took time off to visit Israel to ascertain their capabilities which are congruent to Guyana’s needs and environment.

DDL Group Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Komal Samaroo, gave the essence of the Project: “The Project is built on the basis of quality and competitiveness,” said Mr. Samaroo, “hence we are using science and technology to make this the most efficient dairy farm, certainly in Guyana and I believe this Region”.

There would be two cow sheds of 80,000 sq. feet each to house the cows. Those sheds will be equipped with Veterinary services and milking parlour.  As the cows feed, they will be taken out and milked and the milk would be treated and cold stored before being transported to the plant at Diamond where they will be attractively packed for the local and external market.

The farm would be self-sufficient:  It will grow its own grass, using four varieties and sweet corn and this fodder would be prepared by two methods, the baling method where the grass is compacted into bales and the silage method where the grass is placed under shrink wrap. By the baling method, the fodder could be stored for six months and by the shrink method for two years.  The cow manure is collected and liquified and used to fertilize the grass.

The farm will be well supplied with water at all seasons since there would be a number of wells and a freshwater irrigation pond which would be storing water during the rainy season.  In other words, times of drought which reduce milk production, would not affect the farm.   It has its own transformer and will generate adequate electricity.

The farm will have its own weather station, the data of which would be helpful in analysing the various facets of the Project in both the long-term and short-term.  The data would include records of sunshine, rainfall, humidity and wind currents and would help the farm to plan rationally.

The farm is located at Moblissa along the Soesdyke-Linden Highway and will cost US$20M and is being managed by Mr. Darrell Manickchand.  Project Manager, Administrative Division, and Mr. Wesley Kirton, the Company’s Project Manager.  The Project will come in full stream by the last quarter of 2025.

(DDL MAINTAINS ITS REPUTATION OF EXCELLENCE AND INNOVATION AS IT EMBARKS ON THE MILK INDUSTRY)

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• CONSUMER CONCERNS, DDL MAINTAINS ITS REPUTATION, indentured servants, MILK INDUSTRY, slavery

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