Expect no more chunky milk, says company
By ROSI DOVIVERATA
Fiji Dairy Limited has started using its newly acquired milk homogeniser. The $300,000 machine was flown in from Sweden to replace the old equipment.
Pouring clumps out of some Rewa Life packets UHT will be a thing of the past.
Nathan Hildebrand, Group Marketing Director for CJ Patel Group, said the new equipment will address the problem of milk separation caused by the old equipment inherited when Fiji Dairy was acquired last year.
Homogenisation
Homogenisation refers to the specific process that evenly distributes fat globules in the milk so that there won’t be two separate layers of milk and milk fats.
Homogenisation is done by a Milk Homogeniser. This process allows fat molecules to get distributed in the milk evenly and there is no separation of two layers.
Increasing production
“With this new piece of equipment, this problem of separation is addressed and we can now resume increasing production that we targeted previously,” Mr Hildebrand said.
“The new homogeniser will also improve the quality of our milk. As we work on increasing our local supply, we can also look to exports as an opportunity to other Pacific markets.”
Currently, the majority of milk sold in Fiji is imported. This shortage is a result of various factors including Fiji’s reliance on imports from Australia and NewZealand.
Mr Hildebrand said Fiji Diary is working hard to address the need to reduce reliance on imports and build self sustainability.
A new chilling station at Yaqara is expected to open this year, following the opening of one in Ba.
Talks continue with the Yaqara pastoral board about sub-leasing land to set up the chilling station.
“With the chilling station in Ba and a second one to open up in Yaqara, we want more Fijians to access the diary industry and consider diary as a viable source of income.
“We would like to see new farmers, embrace and start using these stations. There is no reason why the West can’t be as big as the Central Division,” Mr Hildebrand said.
Southern Cross Foods will manage the supply and delivery of milk to Fiji Diary Limited.
The Homogeniser machine at the Fiji Dairy Limited factory in Nabua.