The Minister of Agriculture, Food, Fisheries and Water Resource Management, Dr. David Estwick, has congratulated the Pine Hill Diary (PHD) for achieving four International Organization for Standardization (ISOs) certifications.
Dr. Estwick???s comments were made following a tour of the PHD Plant, yesterday morning.
He said: ???It is indeed a commendable achievement and we have to appreciate that sometimes what it says to us, is that size sometimes doesn???t determine your capacity. For [the] Pine Hill Diary to be designated as a world class dairy is, therefore, now on the records.???
The Agriculture Minister also lauded the PHD???s plant, stating that the system allows them to have evidence of traceability. ???As the Minister of Agriculture, I am now battling with this Agricultural Health and Food Safety System, what I saw today is probably an example of the achievements of that particular type of system, where you not only have all the evidence of traceability enforced, but you have the capacity to manage your traceability from the farm to the consumption side,??? he added.
Dr. Estwick revealed that there are a number of manufacturers on the island who are not able to export, because they are unable to meet certain international standards. He said that his Ministry would continue to move ahead with the new international standards regime, so that manufacturers would be allowed to penetrate various markets worldwide.
Managing Director of Pine Hill Diary and CEO of Banks Holdings Limited, Richard Cozier, thanked the Ministry for its support. He said that the four new accreditations were very important because the company would now be able to trade internationally.
Mr. Cozier also expressed the hope that within the next six months, other departments within the BHL group would also be accredited with various ISO certifications.
aisha.reid@barbados.gov.bb