A major restructure of Rewa Cooperative Dairy Company will now get underway with private investors expected to come in and try and turn the company into a lucrative venture allowing farmers to concentrate on milk production.
At the Rewa Dairy AGM this morning, Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama stressed to the dairy farmers that the Company at the moment cannot secure any finances to upgrade its factory operations.
He said the company is in serious trouble.
Bainimarama said private investors have shown interest to take over the operational side of Rewa Dairy.
Bainimarama said the step forward is for the farmers to form a national cooperative and focus on milk production.
He said the farmers will be directly assisted through the Ministry of Agriculture and will be provided subsidies to help increase production levels.
Bainimarama said those farmers who hold shares will remain shareholders in the company based on the shares they have already paid for and the factory will be bound by law to purchase milk from the registered farmers.
Bainimarama said this will allow government to redirect funds from the reduced milk subsidies to the farmers in various forms of assistance as currently government loses out on $5 million in revenue due to the current subsidies in place.
The Prime Minister revealed that over the next few weeks he will approve laws which will allow for these steps to be implemented.
Feature
Major restructure of Rewa Dairy underway
