Recently, ISCA team members had the chance to tour a dairy processing plant in Haiti. Over the past 5 years, 32 small scale dairies have been built across the country that now gives farmers a place to market their milk. Each of the dairies markets the milk under the name “Let Agogo”, typically as UHT milk in a 500ml bottle. The milk, with a minimum shelf life of 6-9 months, is being sold to the Haiti government where they use it in a school milk program. This dairy we visited is producing about 1,700 bottles a week.
Each dairy has a capacity to process about 150 gallons of cow milk a day, buying milk from local farmers who each have about 2-3 cows. Production is relatively low at about 1 gallon per cow, however at 100 local gourdes (about $2,50 Canadian) per gallon, this addition revenue has been transformational for these farmers. The plant also produces yogurt and cheese and employs about 18 Haitians per dairy. A great good news story!!