Gov’t urged to charge importers of milk substitutes 1% cess

The Cabinet is now considering a recommendation from the Jamaica Dairy Development Board (JDDB) for the widening of the one per cent cess charged on milk substitutes to capture alternative milk products such as almond, soy, and oat milk, among others.

Making the disclosure during the observation of World Milk Day at the Tulloch Primary School in Bog Walk, St Catherine, on Wednesday, JDDB Chairman Dr Derrick Deslandes explained the rationale for wanting to includes these milk substitutes under the import cess, which is used to fund the organisation.

“All those things that are coming into the country now, they are not paying any duty. So they are making our local producers’ lives that much more difficult, and we are taking steps to try to address that issue because we believe it is important to provide our producers with the protection that they require to compete more effectively,” he said.

Speaking with The Gleaner shortly afterwards, JDDB Acting Chief Executive Officer Devon Sayers further explained that the importers were guilty of marketing the various milk substitutes as milk although they do not have the nutritional value of dairy milk, hence the reason they were being pulled into the tariff net. However, he said they were not being seen as competitors, but rather as fellow players in another segment of the industry.

“We are not seeing them as competitors. We want it to be more of a partnership because all of us are Jamaicans. So we want them to be partners in the revolution of the dairy sector. We are still in deliberations. Nothing is cast in stone, but we are looking at ways to incorporate them in[to] the sector and will provide a space for them in the growing dairy sector,” said Sayers.

“Some of the importers of these products are also into dairy, too. So we have to strike a balance,” he added.

Local producers of dairy milk also pay the one per cent cess, which goes towards funding the JDDB, according to Sayers.

Meanwhile, Deslandes pointed out that before the advent of the trade liberalisation in 1992, Jamaica produced 39 million litres of cow’s milk each year, but this has since fallen to about 13 million litres – and at times even slipping to 10 million litres depending on rainfall for the year.

“Clearly, we have to try to fix that. We, Jamaica that is, require 56 million litres of milk (per annum) in totality to serve the Jamaican population,” said the JDDB chairman.

He noted that World Milk Day was an important annual observation as the industry contributes to the livelihood of a billion persons globally.

“So, literally, more than 10 per cent of the world’s population depend on it for survival, and milk is highly important and a critical component of our nutrition system,” said Deslandes.

christopher.serju@gleanerjm.com