KINGSTON, Jamaica — Prime Minister Andrew Holness has expressed pleasure in the Seprod Group’s growth to become the largest dairy processing company in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Holness said that he is pleased that the company, which sells its products in 23 markets worldwide, is also the largest co-manufacturer of juice and flavoured drink in the region and, in addition to exporting its products, will now be manufacturing products for Nestlé using local milk.

In March, Seprod signed a deal with Nestlé Jamaica Limited, Nestlé Trinidad and Nestlé Caribbean Incorporated, to start producing two milk products locally, Nestlé Full Cream Condensed Milk and Nestlé Green Butterfly Condensed Milk, for local and regional distribution.

“That is telling me that we are going to be creating, over the next decade, significant value and capacity in a local industry that is going to signal a higher rate of growth,” Holness said Tuesday, during the official launch of the Serge Island Dairies new processing plant at Bog Walk, St Catherine.

He saw the investment by Seprod and its parent company Musson, as a signal of confidence in Government’s economic policies.

“The confidence index in Jamaica, both consumer and producer confidence, continues to be high and is, in fact, rising,” Holness commented.

Seprod is exporting its own dairy brands, including Supligen, to the United States, United Kingdom and Nigeria. The company is also going into the production of coconut water at Bog Walk, and banana porridge for the national school-feeding programme, for which a memorandum of understanding has been signed with the Banana Board.

Seprod’s chairman Paul ‘PB’ Scott said that the company’s US$100 million investment in the dairy industry over the past four years, was evidence of its confidence in the potential of the manufacturing industry in Jamaica.

He noted that Seprod purchased the dairy-processing factory in Bog Walk from Nestle three years ago, after it had ceased manufacturing in Jamaica, and the vision was to develop a world-class dairy operation.

He also noted that employment at the factory had tripled from 100 to 300 over the three years, and that the production facility had the capacity to employ 600 on shift.

Also attending Tuesday launch was Minister of Industry, Commerce, Agriculture and Fisheries, Audley Shaw.

Balford Henry