Fiji milk goes regional

MILK supplied by Fiji Island dairy farmers is now being exported to Vanuatu to deter mine the demand for local dairy products in the South Pacific. Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company, Fiji’s only producer of dairy foods, has begun trial exports of milk

to L’Albatros Vanuatu Ltd. Rewa is also exploring the possibility of extending exports to Tonga and Samoa.

Rewa Co-operative has delivered three trial shipments to UHT Life Milk, UHT Skim Milk and Fun Flavour to Vanuatu since May this year. L’Albatros Vanuatu is

an import and wholesale operator supply ing food products to hotels and restau rants. L’Albatros director, Mr George Adams, had enquired with Rewa Co operative earlier this year about the possi

bility of importing milk from Fiji.

He requested sole distributorship of Rewa Dairy products in Vanuatu.

According to Mr Adams, the response to Fiji milk is positive and he sees poten tial for expansion of sales.

Rewa Co-operative Dairy Company

managing director, Mr Sam Speight, said he was pleased with the interest in local dairy foods by L’Albatros.

“This could be something very signifi cant because it is the first time we have entered the export market,” said Mr Speight.

“We are proud that our locally pro duced milk has been well-received by another Pacific Island country. This proves that local dairying can be devel oped to the extent of exporting within the region”.

In the past year, Rewa Co-operative has invested in various initiatives to pro mote and improve dairy industry perfor mance. These include an intensive artifi cial insemination and pasture develop ment programme, a new supplementary dairy feed ration and new equipment for farmers.

Mr Speight said that Rewa Co-op now looked forward to discussing incentive schemes with the Fiji trade and invest ment Board that could facilitate future export opportunities. ■