Pine Hill Dairy (PHD) is negotiating a subsidy with Government in an effort to revive the local dairy industry which has been plagued with several challenges for years.Shafia London, country manager of Banks Holding Limited, the parent company of PHD, told Barbados TODAY in an interview that Government’s intervention in the industry was urgently needed to pull the sector out of hot water.Although London did not disclose any details about what PHD had proposed, she said she was satisfied with the progress of the meetings and had faith that a positive outcome would be realised.“We have been in discussions with Government and we are quite optimistic. They have been going very well and we have submitted various proposals that are being actively reviewed and which would allow some sort of relief to the farmers and relief, we are hoping, for the consumer. We are hoping to close those discussions soon,” she said.“A subsidy is one of the suggestions (we put forward); not a straight subsidy of course, because it has to be linked to various indicators so that all parties benefit.
