Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
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ST CROIX, USVI: In a move that will spell good economic news to St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, Health Commissioner Darlene Carty informed the Health and Hospital Senate Committee last week that a milk certification laboratory will be located on St. Croix.
The new lab is expected to generate millions of dollars in future sales of Federal Food and Drug Administration approved Grade A milk to cruise ships operating in the Caribbean.
For years St. Thomas Diaries in the U.S. Virgin Islands was doing a thriving business selling FDA approved Grade A milk to about 10 cruise lines operating in the Caribbean. Then Hurricane Marilyn devastated St. Thomas in Sept. 2004.
An estimated 80 percent of the homes and businesses on St. Thomas were destroyed and at least 10,000 people were left homeless. The hurricane was also to blame for the loss of the cows in St. Thomas. St. Thomas Dairies company president Fred Hintz said after the hurricane, the cows could not be found for several weeks. When they were eventually located, their milk had dried up.
Since then, St. Thomas Dairies milk is produced from Canadian dried non-fat milk solids and frozen butterfat from Ireland. Subsequently, the cruise lines were told by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that 5 points would be deducted on their sanitary inspections if they bought milk not certified Grade A. The loss of the cruise industry market cost the Virgin Islands approximately $1 million in sales per year.
Island Dairies, located on St. Croix, uses Holstein cattle to produce fresh milk and ice cream. The company also produces a line of juice products, including passion fruit, guava pineapple and fruit punch and iced tea.
Carty told the Senate committee that the lab would be operational within a year. The lab would be located at the Charles Harwood Medical Complex in Estate Richmond, Christiansted, St. Croix. She said since more than 80 percent of the milk processing is done on St. Croix; it makes economical and practical sense to locate the testing laboratory on that island.
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