NAMILCO gets new US$8M mixing plant to improve flour quality 

The National Milling Company of Guyana (NAMILCO) will soon commission a US$8 million mixing plant that should improve the quality of flour produced, the company’s Managing Director, Roopnarine Sukhai announced on Thursday.

Sukhai, at an event held at the company’s Head Office at Agricola, East Bank Demerara (EBD), said this new plant would aid the company to produce high-quality flour.

And NAMILCO’s Operations Manager Ralf Hemsing explained that by using this plant, the company can save time and become more efficient in producing flour that takes less time to adjust to the user’s baking or cooking needs.

“We will have flour ready at all times to mix and blend any kind at any time we need it…We can make it very versatile now so you can make your own recipes, let’s say for baking, you can get flour that’s good for pizza, flour that’s good for bagel.

“Before you had to blend the wheat, temper it and mill it out in batches (but) that’s no longer necessary. The miller just puts the flour in the bins and we can draw from it anytime we want with any quantity. It will greatly improve on accuracy, flexibility and efficiency,” Hemsing said.

This investment announcement comes as the company was just recertified to use the Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) ‘Made in Guyana’ seal.

This seal indicates the authenticity of Guyanese products based on the quantity of local raw materials and Guyanese labour used in the production process, among other criteria. During Thursday’s event, the company was re-certified to use the seal.

Sukhai said quality is very important for the company and after being certified last year to use the ‘Made in Guyana’ certification mark on its Maid Marian self-rising flour and Thunderbolt wheat, the programme was expanded to 15 more products under the NAMILCO brand.

“It [the recertification] comes after proper due diligence and audits. We have to satisfy the conditions set by GNBS and we have done so successfully thanks to our quality control team for being able to achieve this,” Sukhai said.

He, however, explained that the seal is being manually placed on the products which is why not every package has it but that the company is working to get as many packages as possible stamped.

Keon Rankin, the Head of Certification Services at GNBS encouraged the company to continue seeking out avenues of improving its products to keep up with international standards.

“Without testing to see that the quality is fit for consumption they would not have been certified. We know what is quality today will not be quality tomorrow so continue to think of ways and means of improving the product,” Rankin said.