The sod was turned yesterday afternoon to mark the start of the construction of the Amaya Milk Company’s $150 million state-of-the-art milk processing facility at Onverwagt, West Coast Berbice, which is expected to produce pasteurized milk for store shelves by the end of April next year.
Speaking at the ceremony, Omkaar Sharma, the founder of the company, explained that he spent 18 years in Canada, 12 of which he spent as part of the dairy sector at various levels. During that time, he said, he always wondered: “How awesome it would be to do that in Guyana?”
However, he added that the reality at that time was “Guyana does not have a dairy industry that is capable of supporting the kind of jobs that I was doing.” But during his visits to Guyana he continued to wonder “Why not Guyana?” And soon the question became: “Why don’t you do it?”
Sharma explained that over the last six years the thought became stronger but at that time the conditions in Guyana were not right and he began planning the project on the backburner.
However, Sharma said that when President Irfaan Ali was elected and invited persons from the diaspora to return and invest in their country, he knew the time had come for him to launch his project.
Sharma pointed out that President Ali’s decision to not solely rely on oil and gas for the growth and development of Guyana was one which was heartening, and the President’s focus on agriculture was “music to my ears.”
In addition to this, he said, it was the work coming from Minister of Agriculture, Zulfikar Mustapha to promote and develop the agriculture sector, and G-Invest Chief Executive Officer Peter Ramsaroop to attract investments to Guyana and to make the process as easy as possible that sealed the deal. He noted, “I knew that this government meant business and this project will succeed.”
Sharma further explain-ed that after noticing the work coming from the government and importance placed on the sector, he packed his equipment and returned to Guyana to make his dream a reality. “We are here today not only to mark the start of construction of this milk processing facility but also the start of an organised and functioning dairy sector in Guyana. We are now on our way to becoming the breadbasket of the Caribbean,” he stated.
It is expected that the facility will create jobs in the local community, as well as provide a reliable market for local cattle farmers. It is estimated that 20 to 30 persons will be employed during the construction phase, while approximately 15 persons will be employed full time once the processing plant is in operation.
The plan is that milk will be collected from cattle farmers in both Region Five and Region Six for processing at the facility.
Yesterday’s sod turning exercise signaled the start of Phase 1 of the venture, with an investment value of $150 million. Phase 2 is expected to commence in about two years with an expansion for the production of yogurt, cheese, paneer, and cream, while with the increase of local diary production the company hopes to supply the regional markets as well.
At capacity the milk company is expected to make direct payments in excess of $75 million per month to dairy farmers.
Minister Mustapha stressed that Sharma’s investment will create employment as well as provide the market for cattle farmers to sell their milk. “These are the things we had in our programmes when we said we would improve agriculture and as a government. While we are now an emerging oil and gas producing country you could see the effort and energies we are putting in the non-oil sectors to develop our economy, because we recognise the importance of the agriculture sector,” he said.
“Today in agriculture, we are seeing the importance of agriculture, we are seeing a renewed sense of activities and a renewed interest in the agriculture sector over the last year,” he added.
Additionally, Mustapha pointed out that both local persons and persons abroad have returned to the agriculture sector because they are witnessing the “activities and opportunities that exist in this sector.”
Mustapha added that six months ago when the MOU was signed for the project he told the founder that investments in Guyana will be made very simple as the government would work to remove all the red tape and bureaucracy that existed before. “We would ensure that you don’t have to go through those things anymore and we would make investments very simple,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, during his address, urged the founder and his team to work to complete construction as early as possible and go into production as swiftly as they could.
He also urged the company to always maintain good standards and quality. Singh said, “We would like to see you penetrate [the] widest possible markets. We would like you to grow even beyond your current projections and I look forward to hearing you tell me that you’ve exceeded your initial projections.”
Singh stressed that government’s vision has always been one that is built around a highly diversified economy. He added that they have never been content to sit back and watch the country’s economy revolve around one, two or even three sectors alone and so they continue to push to develop all sectors in the country. “I wish to reiterate our commitment to ensuring a strong and widely diversified productive sector in Guyana, not only oil and gas but in the non–oil extractives, including minerals such as gold, bauxite, manganese, etc,” he added.
He also said that the government considers the agriculture sector to be one of importance from the point of view of ensuring a strong rural economy and ensuring food security not just for Guyana but the Caribbean as well.
Noting that there has been a lot of investments in a number of sectors, he added that “we are formally committed to a strong and widely diversified productive sector.”
