John Myers Jr., Staff Reporter
MORE THAN five years and US$10 million in expenditure later, the construction of a new dairy processing plant in St. Catherine, by the Jamaica Dairy Farmers Federation, is yet to get off the ground.
This has left the federation with a $620 million debt, as it will have to find the funds to repay a loan received through a government lending programme, to build the processing facility.
WRITE OFF THE LOAN
Aubrey Taylor, vice-chairman of the dairy federation, said the entire loan had been spent, and the processing plant which was to be built on the same property as the Century Farm operations in Old Harbour, St. Catherine, had not been completed. He said there were no funds to repay the loan or to continue with the construction of the processing plant. He said the dairy federation needs at least another US$10 million to build the facility and suggested that the Government write off the existing loan.
In explaining the reason behind the extent of the federation's debt, Mr. Taylor pointed out that when the loan was approved, it was valued at $370 million. However, the devaluation of the Jamaican dollar against its United States counterpart significantly increased the cost of the project and pushed the amount to be repaid in excess of $600 million.
He noted that at the time the loan was approved, the Jamaican dollar was valued at US$37:US$1; today it is $62.96:US$1.
The new processing facility was being built to eliminate the perennial problem dairy farmers had with spoilage, because of the unavailability of adequate marketing opportunities. The facility was expected to process 60,000 litres of milk per day by converting liquid milk into powder.
Mr. Taylor said the processing facility was also supposed to have been the stepping stone to assist farmers in producing value-added products such as milk, cheese, ice cream and yoghurt, and to encourage more persons to get involved in dairy farming.
"But instead of more dairy farmers coming on-stream, many have fallen by the wayside, so actually there is a significant shortage of milk right now," said Mr. Taylor. In fact, he said the problem with spoilage no longer exists as "there is now more market than milk available".
ONLY EQUIPMENT PURCHASED
Raymond Brooks, the chairman of the dairy federation, told The Gleaner said that only the equipment for the processing plant had been purchased, and is now locked away in storage.
Albert Walker, the former operations manager of the federation's Century Farm, had told The Gleaner in an earlier interview that the equipment was purchased at a cost of US$1.8 million. Mr. Taylor said the federation had used about $115 million to purchase the Century Farms operations.
The apparent failure of the project created a stalemate between the Government and the dairy federation, which is asking that the Government procures another loan to complete the facility. According to Mr. Taylor, many proposals on how to get additional funding were submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture. However, he said that the ministry is yet to respond.
