Nutrimix, Seprod target kids to boost dairy consumption

Primary schoolchildren have been placed at the centre of a campaign by Nutrimix and Seprod, to revitalise and promote wider consumption of local dairy milk.

Thursday was celebrated globally as World Milk Day and at the St Richards Primary School off Red Hills Road in St Andrew, Nutrimix and Seprod sought to capture the minds and appetites of the youngsters by imparting information to them on the great benefits of consuming real cow's milk.

Seprod is responsible for distributing Serge Island Milk.

"This is a campaign initiated by Nutrimix. We are very excited to try and help influence the dairy industry and the consumption of milk. The kids are very smart. You have to start with the kids because you don't find that a lot of them nowadays have great knowledge about dairy and where it stands in a balanced diet; or even what the benefits are. We found it important to reach out to the kids so they can pass it down to their own kids. Parents should give them milk because it is better for their energy at school. Give them milk for breakfast because it keeps them full longer and they don't get hungry right after they go to school," Nutrimix's Brand Manager Tina Hamilton told The Gleaner.

Hamilton highlighted that the consumption of dairy milk locally has dropped significantly over the years and the aim of Nutrimix and Seprod is to reintroduce milk drinking on a wide scale.

"We are coming from the height of the dairy industry. We were (producing locally) 44 million litres a year and we dropped all the way down to 11 million litres, so the campaign started last year and it is a 10-year campaign. Serge, through Seprod, has done a lot of tremendous things on the production side. Nutrimix has been involved in the artificial insemination of cattle from Holland, so we can improve the breeding stock out here so our cows can produce more milk," stated Hamilton.