Ilimo Dairy Farm bottles first ‘top quality’ milk

By LEMACH LAVARI
The first fresh milk product from the Ilimo Dairy Farm in Central was presented to the Government yesterday.
The product will be officially launched on Feb 6 and will sell at half the price of imported fresh milk, said Innovative Agro Industry chairman and executive director Ilan Weiss.
He said fresh milk will be available to customers in Port Moresby and later other centres.
“The milk is top quality,” Weiss said.
“It is fresh milk and has no preservatives.
“The farm can produce 6000 tonnes of milk a day, which will double in March.
“We are starting with fresh milk but we will add more products like flavoured milk, dairy snacks, ice-cream and yoghurt.”
Weiss said the full range of products would be introduced to the markets in six months’ time.
He said the farm would retain full distribution of its products to control price and quality.
The products would be affordable because the feed for the cows was grown locally by farmers in Central, he said.
The milk samples were received by National Planning and Monitoring Minister Richard Maru at Vulupindi Haus in Port Moresby.
Maru said this was a result of the Government’s plan to produce food products locally.
Rice will follow.
“We import K400 million worth of milk annually from Australian and New Zealand,” he said.
“The Ilimo Farm will replace a third of that milk import.
“The remaining two-thirds of milk will be produced in a second dairy farm.
“This farm will be built at Yalu, just outside Lae.
“Feasibility studies are underway at the moment and will possibly be completed in March.
“Over the next 12 to 24 months, PNG will be able to produce enough milk to replace total milk imports from Australia and New Zealand.”
He thanked the LR Group for being the single-biggest investor in developing the Ilimo Dairy Farm.
He said the Government would help develop the second farm in Lae.
Innovative Agro Industry Ltd is a PNG-registered company which is owned by the Israeli LR Group.
It owns a 50 per cent share of the Ilimo Dairy Farm while the State and Central provincial government own 20 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.