New dairy plant to be operating by summer

Milk will start being produced using the most advanced technology on the market some time later this year, following an investment of Lm2 million.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi described it as "an investment for the benefit of consumers", with the consumer being assured that the end product was a high quality one which competed with European Union products.

In recent years Malta Dairy Products (MDP) invested Lm1.3 million in the company and a current Lm2 million modernisation project is being implemented in conjunction with Austrian and Italian companies specialised in this sector.

Philip von Brockdorff, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Rural Affairs and the Environment, told The Times that a completely new dairy is expected to be operating this summer.

Meanwhile, technical help is being given to farmers to check the bacterial quality of milk, through a twinning project with the University of Reading in the UK. Dr von Brockdorff stressed the importance of farmers checking the quality of their milk.

MDP quality assurance manager Victor Anastasi said the dairy used a "quality payment scheme" where farmers were paid according to the quality of the milk and its bacterial count. However, he stressed, fresh milk was already of a good standard.

Mr Anastasi said pasteurised milk could be on customers' tables within 24 hours of milking.

During a visit to the MDP plant in Hamrun, the Prime Minister was shown the plans of the restructured dairy. Dr Gonzi referred to this process as a typical example of the "dream" which would take place on Saturday with Malta's EU membership.

The Prime Minister said the MDP's products were able to compete well on the international market. The local products had an advantage on imported ones because they were so fresh.

Dr Gonzi said the impact of the restructuring was not solely on the MDP's employees, 160 in all, but also on farmers who produce the raw material. In fact, about 40 per cent of arable land in Malta is tilled to produce forage for the milk industry.

Last year, the local dairy produced an average of 106,000 litres of milk every day.