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Family farms
When the then Barbados Dairy Industries opened to business in 1966 its first
suppliers were largely family farms, many located in the city. Trucks,
animal drawn carts and even the strong heads of dairy farmers were
the vehicles by which milk was transported to the Company.
Three thousand litres of the commodity was collected, or delivered
twice each day to the dairy. At the time most of the farming operations
were manual, and milk was not refrigerated prior to delivery in
20 & 40 quart churns to the new Company.
Operations transformed
Today, it is a vastly changed scene. The entire local operation
has been transformed into a technological up-to-date and well regulated
system where a sophisticated fleet of specialised tankers collects
an average of 15,000 litres of milk once daily from two zones.
The farms themselves boast state-of-the-art milking and storage
equipment in what is virtually a local dairy revolution that has
brought to Barbadians a high degree of milk self-sufficiency.
Shareholdership
Originally a joint venture between the Northern Dairies of England,
the New Zealand Dairy Board, private enterprise in Barbados and
the Barbados Government, the four parties each held 25 % of the
shares with government later increasing its sharesholdings to 40%.
The Company was acquired by BHL in 1997 and for the first time
was completely locally controlled.
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