5 Questions for ... Keith Amiel on Nutramix

Marcella Scarlett, Business Reporter

Caribbean Broilers Group spent the past five years upgrading its Newport Mills facility at a cost of US$10 million and now says that its feed product, Nutramix, is being produced in an ultra-modern, ultra-safe environment. So the Financial Gleaner had 5 Questions for Corporate Affairs Manager Dr Keith Amiel on what this means for the animal feed market.

What substantial difference has the US$10m investment made to the Nutramix line?

We produce over 26 different types of feed and we now have to have a facility that would produce consistent quality feed in the quantities that are required.

The US$10 million was used for better storage facilities, better mixing facilities, improve capacity to operate faster and more consistently, better quality control facility so we can test every batch of feed. In other words, computerised systems have replaced the manual systems and more sophisticated quality control equipment have come into the production process.

We test every batch of feed and we are able to identify every bag of feed from the mill to the farm. Traceability is very important and it is a prerequisite to meeting international standards to be able to export.

The capital investment allows us to mix the ingredients better. Because it is highly computerised now, the human error element is minimised.

We have storage for about 12,000 tonnes of raw material where it can feed through conveyors and 6,000 tonnes of flat storage, which is an open room. We are building space for 2,000 more tonnes.

You see, we are expanding to accommodate the shipments. The ships carry between 6,000 and 10,000 tonnes of raw material.

What is the size of Nutramix's market? Where do you see it in 3-5 years?

Jamaica uses about 360,000 tonnes of feed per year. We are operating at approximately 50 per cent capacity supplying 45 per cent of the market. We are second to our competitor, Hi-Pro. They produce the other 55 per cent. Our upgrading of the mill has increased our capacity to turn out up to 260,000 tonnes per year. Before the upgrade we were doing nearly half that. At that time we were about one-third the size of the competitor.

We are a major supplier to the dairy and beef industry, you know, like Serge Island.

Expansion is constrained by the size of the livestock population. Jamaica imports all these meats. If you look at goat meat, lamb, mutton, we import up to J$150 million every month from New Zealand and Australia. And it is a sin, because goat and sheep, like cattle, are what we call ruminants; they can digest fibre and grass - and in the tropics nothing grows like bush and grass.

We can start to grow the goat and cattle livestock by using the raw material we have.

We could also do fish, tilapia, also dog food and food for pets. Our plant has the capacity to make these as well.

How big a player is Nutramix in the Caribbean and other overseas markets?

Initially, the wharf was to accommodate getting the corn, wheat, soya bean, but now we are also exporting.

You know we don't produce the raw materials so we have to import them.

We export to nine Caribbean countries - Aruba, Curacao, Antigua, St Lucia, Barbados, Trinidad, Dominica, Cayman and Suriname. We do 80 twenty-foot containers of feed every month.

Because of economies of scale, it would mean that the smaller Caribbean countries do not have the capacity to run a mill this size. There are other feed mills across CARICOM, but it seem like we have developed a reputation of consistency with quality so we have a market out there that looks to buy our feed. The problem for the OECS and elsewhere in the Caribbean is that it is just not economical for them to put up a feed mill.

There are two potential markets in the Caribbean - one is Haiti and the other is Cuba. Haiti has over 10 million people and Cuba has nearly nine million people. Antigua and Dominica with 45,000 people is nonsense. Even Trinidad itself does not make any sense.

How does the upgrade affect the quality and price to consumers?

Return on investment will come from increased and consistent supply. Because of the dependability of the mill to deliver and because of the heighten performance that the farmers will see as a result of using our products we bring sustainability to the market, and we will be compensated adequately for the investment made.

We don't have to double the price because we spent some money. It is not taking away from the competitor either. It is growing the industry and this will happen when we reduce our dependency on imports. The objective is to produce enough to have some to export; you know, expand the industry, not take away from the competitor.

Any increase in price is directly related to change in the price of inputs - the price of corn, oil, the exchange rate.

Quality will be maintained because everything is computerised and we know the nutrient content of the ingredients, we know the nutrient that the animals require, and we have computerised formulas for all the mixes.

Will this investment result in safer food for consumers?

We have a quality assurance lab that looks for potentially harmful bacteria and micro-organisms that could affect the animals and, ultimately, the consumers.

So we have surpassed food quality and are ensuring that there is food safety.

EDITOR'S NOTE

'5 Questions For' is being introduced as a new feature for company representatives to speak in their own words about their products, people, services and markets, so expect our call. Meantime, drop me a line with your thoughts: lavern.clarke@gleanerjm.com