Construction is forging ahead at the site for the proposed $150 million Amaya milk plant in Region Five and the entity’s founder, Omkaar Sharma, says that it will be operational by the end of October of this year.
“We are currently in building construction mode. We just finished prepping for the pouring of the cement and that will be done before the end of this week. Then we will do the outside of the building and there is another crew lined up to do the roof,” Sharma told Stabroek News last week, when asked for a progress update.
“Timeline is the end of October for having a finished product,” he added.
Sharma said that he was confident that the building will be completed and has set late August for its completion so that the electrical works can commence.
At the same time, he anticipates that the pasteurizer will be in the country as it has already been shipped from Canada.
The October completion will be one year to the date the sod was turned for the construction of the milk plant.
In April of last year, Sharma had told this newspaper of plans to establish a milk plant here, as he saw the need not only within Guyana, but expanding throughout the region.
He had informed that plans were that the plant will initially produce 100 gallons per day and that amount could be swiftly bumped up to 800 gallons a day, depending on the supply from farmers.
Under the umbrella of the Amaya Milk Company, Sharma noted that the milk processing facility will be underpinned by the advocacy of renewables and incentivising locals.
And given that Region Five leads the country in cattle farming on the coastland, Sharma disclosed that when he discussed the investment idea with the Ministry of Agriculture, he was advised it would be the best location to set up his facility.
He clinched a lease for land at Onverwagt for the construction of the facility and when completed, the bottled milk produced, under the Mahaica Dairy Milk brand, will go on sale at local supermarkets throughout the country.
At the sod turning, the entrepreneur had explained that he spent 18 years in Canada, 12 in 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?”
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.
Phase 1 of the venture, sees 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 dairy 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.
Sharma’s initiative has come in for high praise from government with the ministers of Agriculture and Finance, Zulfikar Mustapha and Dr Ashni Singh, promising government’s support for the plan that is demonstrative of citizens investing in diverse sectors.
Singh had stressed that government’s vision has always been one that is built around a highly diversified economy. At the sod turning, he remarked that government has 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, et cetera.”
He also emphasised 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 investment in a number of sectors, he added that “we are formally committed to a strong and widely diversified productive sector.”
