Ongoing milk snag

Pine Hill Dairy (PHD) continues to grapple with production challenges that have left its popular Sungold evaporated milk absent from supermarket shelves.

The company says the scarcity has persisted far longer than initially expected, primarily due to ongoing disruptions in the global supply chain which have severely impacted the procurement of milk powder, a key ingredient in the production of evaporated milk.

Khadija Marshall, PHD’s commercial manager, told the DAILY NATION they had projected production would return to normal by the start of this month, but unforeseen complications have resulted in further delays.

Lisa Ridley-Paul, people, legal and corporate affairs manager at Banks Holdings Limited, PHD’s parent company, revealed that the problems began when the long-standing supplier in New Zealand informed them, on short notice, that it would no longer be able to supply milk powder, forcing PHD to search for an alternative supplier.

This, however, was not a straightforward task. Ridley-Paul said the search involved not only identifying a supplier with the capacity to meet PHD’s needs, but also ensuring that the quality of the milk powder matched the high standards consumers expect from the Pine Hill brand.

“We had to source an alternative supplier. We had to find out whether they had the capacity to sell to us because a lot of these contracts are finalised for years in advance, as we had with New Zealand,” she noted.

She explained that after an extensive search, they finally secured a new supplier in Mexico whose samples met the company’s stringent quality requirements. However, this came with its own set of challenges.

“Due to shipping schedules, we are not expected to receive the shipment until later this month. That has been the delay,” Ridley-Paul said. She added that once the shipment arrives and clears Customs, production can commence within two weeks, with hopes of having the product back on shelves by mid-October.

In the interim, PHD has sought to alleviate the shortfall by importing evaporated milk from Serge-Seprod in Jamaica.

Ridley-Paul acknowledged that while this stopgap measure had helped to some extent, it was “far from ideal” for the Pine Hill products to which Barbadians have grown accustomed. “We have had two shipments of evaporated milk from Serge trying to reach market demand. We currently have a third shipment in port.”

Ridley-Paul said the company empathised with the frustrations of some customers, many of whom rely on the product for their daily needs. 

“We’re working to get it done as quickly as possible. We’ve done all of our testing; we’re pleased with the test. We just need to receive the shipment,” she said. (DS)

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