DDL milk woes: Mustapha doubts issues will recur

Weeks after there was widespread outrage over Trinidad’s rejection of two containers of milk from Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), Guyana’s Agriculture Minister Zulfikar Mustapha has said a similar situation is not likely to happen again.

Mustapha Wednesday said his ministry, through the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA), has been working with DDL and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to remedy the situation.

“You know there are a lot of issues with sanitary and phytosanitary standards that we have to put in place and we have to ensure that things are going good.

“I think they have a better understanding of the system and I doubt in the future that those issues will recur,” Mustapha said when asked for an update on engagements.

Earlier this month, DDL Chairman Komal Samaroo flagged challenges relating to the export of the company’s products-packaged milk and bottled sparkling water- to Trinidad and Tobago.

“Regrettably the two containers of packaged milk products were denied entry and returned to Guyana, while the bottled water products have been restricted from sale pending the completion of an unconventionally exhaustive examination of these bottled water products,” Mr. Samaroo told reporters at a press conference.

According to Samaroo, those requirements are not in keeping with the thrust for greater intra-regional trade to meet the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) goal of slashing costly extra-regional food imports by 2025.