7 months ago
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The dairy sector is aiming to double the output of milk from Jamaica in the next three to five years, with at two of Jamaica’s large dairy producers at the forefront of the drive.
Serge Island Farms in St Thomas and Trade Winds Citrus in St Catherine, the latter being a relatively new player in the dairy sector, have both indicated that they will be making significant investments in the next few years.
Their plans come alongside the Jamaican government’s new effort to increase milk production by importing heifers that will end up producing milk at higher yields. Jamaica is only meeting about 20 per cent of its dairy needs from local production at present.
The procurement of the 250 heifers, being done by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Mining, through the Jamaica Dairy Development Board, JDDB, is costing about $400 million, according to Dairy Board Chairman Dr Derrick Deslandes. The animals would most likely be sourced from the United States, he said.
“We have had dialogue with the potential suppliers, because the (dairy) industry is a very controlled one, and you have players who can acquire the animals to the specifications we have set up. We are also exploring Canada as a possibility, because of the emergence of bird flu in the US,” Deslandes told the Financial Gleaner.
Richard Pandohie, CEO of Seprod Group, which includes Jamaica’s largest dairy farm, Serge Island Farms Limited, said his company wants to drive milk production in the country as a whole.
“Remember, we’re coming from a place where Jamaica was a very robust milk-producing country. In the early 1990s, we made a mistake of liberalising the whole milk powder market that literally destroyed the industry, reducing us from 38 million litres of milk per year to 13 million litres per year now,” he said.
It is unlikely that Jamaica’s milk production will reach those heights again, he added, but suggested that 25 million litres per year is possible.
“In the English-speaking Caribbean, there’s no other real dairy industry, per se. It’s a huge opportunity for farmers in Jamaica to supply not only local demand, but the rest of the region, which is how we look at Caricom as a domestic market,” he said.
Serge Island currently has about 4,840 animals on its farm, but also gets milk from Rusal in Manchester and about 10 per cent of its supply from small farmers. Pandohie said the farm has made losses recently, a situation he hopes to turn around in the next three years.
Rusal is a Russian mining company and owner of Windalco in Jamaica, but it also operates dairy farms locally, in Manchester and St Ann, with technical assistance from the Jamaica Dairy Development Board. All the milk it produces is sold to Serge Island, and is said to account for 19 per cent of the total volumes handled by the dairy company.
“There were losses of over $290 million from the farm last year,” Pandohie said of the Serge Farm operation. “I am not happy with where we are, but we’re definitely making progress. We expect to reduce that loss by 50 per cent in 2025 and break even by 2026,” he said.
One of the initiatives Seprod is working on is the planting of sorghum, working with a team from India, that will be used as cattle feed.
Still, Pandohie asserted that the dairy operation itself was profitable, with income flowing from the processing and distribution sides of the business.
At Trade Winds Citrus Limited, which markets its dairy products under the Tru-Milk label, the company is in expansion mode.
“The total herd is now 750 animals, with plans to get to 1,500 over the next three years,” said Managing Director Peter McConnell.
McConnell said his company was motivated to enter the dairy industry when they learnt that more than 75 per cent of the milk solids currently consumed in Jamaica are imported as milk powder for use in beverages, ice cream and baked goods.
“TWCL is committed to Jamaica’s food security by growing what we eat and eating what we grow; assisting Jamaica to be self-sufficient in milk is one of our goals. TWCL believes that Jamaica can and will feed itself,” McConnell said.
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