Banks DIH made a large purchase of local rice for its Banks beer and Banko wine production last year and recorded export revenue of US$1.956m from this aspect of its operations.
According to company Chairman, Clifford Reis, as a result of Research and Development work the beverage giant was able to pioneer the process and as a result purchased 2,000,000 pounds of rice in 2019 for not just Banko wines but also Banks Beer.
The revenues generated from the sale and export of these rice based Banko Wines is $1.3 billion of which US$1.956 million is export revenue, he noted.
“Banks DIH has and continues to play its part in the field of agro processing and is the largest Private Sector Agro Processor in the country,” Reis declared at the group’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in response to a question raised about their commitment to agro-processing.
He explained that the Company’s involvement in agro-processing goes way back to 1957 when they utilised Rice as an adjunct in the Brewing process to make Banks Beer and continued in the 1980’s when they manufactured Wines made from imported Grape Must and made snack and cereal products using Cassava and Rice Flours at a Mill located at Look Out, East Bank Essequibo.
The latter project was discontinued because sourcing cassavas from the farmers was not economical and the Mill was closed.
“It might be helpful to mention that the well-recognised brand “Budweiser” uses rice in their brewing process, while other breweries use corn and corn derived sweeteners. Jamaica has pioneered the use of cassava in their brewing process,” he said adding that over a three-year period a Capital Investment of approximately $182 million has been made to facilitate the latest agro-processing project.
The project has so far seen the installation of new fermenting tanks on the southern side of the playing field which provides additional capacity for 27,000 gallons of liquid which is converted into Banko wines. The company plans to add another two fermenting tanks in 2020.
“From this conversion approximately 800,000 gallons of wine is manufactured per year, of which 350,000 gallons are exported,” he said.
