Local farm to begin producing dairy products

The Ilimo Dairy Farm in Central Province will begin producing dairy products in October this year.

Ilimo Farm is run by agricultural developer Innovative Agro Industries (IAI) and will be launching a new line of dairy products.

IAI Chairman Ilan Weiss said people mainly have access to processed milk due to the high cost of imported fresh milk as very few retail outlets stock fresh milk in the capital.

Weiss said they aim to put a litre of healthy fresh milk on the shelves for consumers at a cost of between K6 and K7.

He said by making fresh milk more accessible to locals, they hope that there will be a long term improvement in the general health of NCD and Central Province residents.

“We look forward to producing a product that is high quality, healthy and affordable.

“Our research teams have visited retail outlets and schools in NCD as well as the Central Province and found that there is great interest in affordable, locally produced, quality, fresh milk.”

“We are also looking at packaging snack sized portions of fresh milk at an affordable rate, to make the health benefits of fresh milk more accessible to every Papua New Guinean,” Weiss said.

The farm also plans to have a visitor center to provide information about how fresh milk and dairy products are produced.

The health benefits of fresh milk are largely unknown to most Papua New Guineans and the visitor centre aims to educate local school children about the importance of a glass of milk a day.

Author: 
Quintina Naime