DAIRY FARMERS who are repeatedly forced into dumping milk will have an assured market during the Christmas season even while schools are on holidays, according to chairman of the Jamaica Dairy Farmers' Federation (JDFF), Aubrey Taylor.
"I would say that farmers will not have a problem with their milk during the Christmas season, as Nestle has agreed to take all this milk into their plant," he assured dairy farmers.
The price at which the milk would be purchased was the only matter left to be decided by the Federation and Nestle JMP Jamaica Limited.
"There is no reason why we cannot come to a mutual agreement where the farmers will have no problem both in the price they get for the milk, and the volumes that are taken off their hands," he said.
He spoke of the increasing opportunity for the marketing of milk, and said that much more milk could be pumped into the School Feeding Programme, which had almost totally eliminated the dumping of milk.
The chairman explained that the arrangement between the Federation and the Government was for Nutrition Products Ltd. (NPL) to purchase up to 3.5 million litres of milk per year for the school-feeding programme. However, Mr. Taylor indicated that last year only 1.5 million litres of milk had been sold to NPL, and noted that while less milk was sold to NPL this year, the amount was expected to increase next year, with the diversion of milk from Nestle into the programme.
"The dumping of milk is due mainly to competition from subsidised, cheaper imported milk powder. Manufacturers tend to use a substantial amount of powdered milk in processing instead of local cow's milk. This situation resulted in dairy farmers experiencing serious difficulties over the last two or three years, and are becoming uncertain as to the future of the industry".
According to the JDFF chairman, the Federation is lobbying for the Government to implement legislation requiring manufacturers to use at least 25 per cent of locally produced milk to manufacture milk-based products such as yoghurt, ice cream, cheese, butter and pasteurised milk.
Despite a steady reduction in the importation of dairy products over the period 1997-2000, Jamaica produces only 18 per cent of annual consumption of 140-150 million litres of milk and milk products.
