Chief Executive Officer of the BAS, James Paul, speaking to The Barbados Advocate.
Some of the cows as they left the airport yesterday afternoon.
One of the crates that housed the cows on their trip to Barbados, about to be taken off the cargo plane.
AN investment in the region of $1.1 million has been made in the local dairy industry.
Chief Executive Officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), James Paul, said that investment has come by way of the importation of 194 cows from the United States, 174 of which are pregnant heifers, some as much as five to six months pregnant.
Speaking to The Barbados Advocate yesterday afternoon outside the Grantley Adams International Airport where the cows, which arrived around 11:30 a.m., were being offloaded from the plane to be transported to quarantine for the next month, Paul said the new additions to the industry will, once they can released from quarantine, immediately augment the milk supply of the island and ensure that the farmers supplying the Pine Hill Dairy are able to adequately meet the milk volumes that the PHD requires.
“We expect that since a lot of those animals will be dropping the milk soon after they come out of quarantine – which is one month from today – we would expect that there will be an increase in milk production from November and December, and we will be adequately prepared for the winter tourist season. Milk demand increases as we approach that time so we don’t expect to have a situation this year where the demand for milk increases and then we are not able to meet that demand. It is a timely thing,” he said.
Paul made the comments as he explained that the initiative was spearheaded by the BAS, and was approximately one year in the making. Admitting that it was not easy to execute, he said it is commendable that it came to fruition and he is appreciative to all those who played in part in getting the animals to Barbados; among them RBC Royal Bank which facilitated the loan, the Central Bank of Barbados, and the Ministry of Agriculture, which he said allowed the six participating farmers to earn rebates on the purchase of the cows.
He made the point as he indicated that it is the BAS that has secured the financing on behalf of the six farmers. Contending that they have every confidence that this system will be successful, he said they are hoping that it will provide a template that they can utilise to proceed with other transactions of that nature, which would be of benefit to the agricultural sector.
“If each individual farmer went themselves for the loans they would not have been able to get them, and to that extent the BAS’ Board took the decision that it would go forward on behalf of the farmers. So the loan is basically to the BAS, but we have a system where all these farmers are dedicated suppliers to the Pine Hill Dairy, and the payments will be made through the revenue that is earned from the Pine Hill Dairy,” he pointed out.
In fact, he disclosed, they have already started honouring their obligations. He said that they have made loan payments, and he is certain that they will have the money repaid within the five-year period.
Meanwhile, he suggested that not only will the imported cows help bolster local milk production, but they are likely to provide employment opportunities for a number of persons. Paul explained that a number of the animals that will be born will be heifers, but seeing that it is very expensive for farmers to raise heifers, he said they sometimes give them out to people to raise them and when they are ready to calf-down they would bring them back into the herd.
“So it creates an industry which otherwise would not be available at this particular point in time,” he stated. (JRT)
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