27062: Hermantin(News)Milk co-op that works (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

HAITI

Milk co-op that works

BY LETTA TAYLER
STAFF CORRESPONDENT

January 2, 2006

BON REPOS, Haiti -- Every morning, Nicolas Jean rises before dawn to milk his 
cow on his scruffy sliver of land. Then he pours the milk into plastic jugs, 
saddles up his horse and trots 2 1/2 hours along bumpy back roads to deliver 
the precious white liquid to a project that inspires hope for Haiti's shattered 
economy.

Jean's destination is a microplant for Lét Agogo (Haitian Creole for "Milk 
Galore"), a franchise that makes yogurt and milk drinks.

Launched by a Haitian non-profit, farm-aid organization, Lét Agogo is widely 
touted as a model for economic development because it delivers on three fronts: 
increasing profits for poor dairy farmers, boosting domestic food production 
and combating malnutrition.

By delivering milk themselves to Lét Agogo's 10 microplants around the country, 
farmers fetch a higher price than they'd get from a middleman. Farmers also 
receive medical help for their cattle from Veterimed, the group that started 
the venture four years ago.

Lét Agogo's workers participate in a profit-sharing system. And Lét Agogo 
drinks cost half what their imported counterparts do, making them far more 
accessible in a country where three-fourths of people live on less than $2 a 
day.

"It's a comprehensive, socially responsible approach to helping Haiti's most 
marginalized populations," said Michel Chancy, director of Veterimed, which 
continues to oversee the venture.

Given the challenge of starting any business in a country teetering on the 
brink, Lét Agogo is still a modest venture. It has captured less than 2 percent 
of the market, employs just 60 full-time workers and indirectly benefits about 
550 farmers and others.

But it is attracting increasing notice, including from the philanthropic W.K. 
Kellogg Foundation and the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America 
and the Caribbean, which in November jointly awarded it a prize for social 
innovation.

"Under very difficult conditions, this project has managed to achieve 
extraordinary changes in the production and sale of milk, by associating 
technical know-how and peasant wisdom," jurors wrote.

Haitians love milk products. But nearly 98 percent of their milk and yogurt 
drinks are imported, and fewer than one-fifth of Haiti's half-million cows are 
milked commercially. The reasons, Chancy said, include a lack of refrigeration 
and infrastructure, seemingly insurmountable problems to subsistence farmers 
who live in remote areas without electricity or cars, and often own just one or 
two cows apiece.

"I don't make much, but I know I can sell my milk every day at a set price," 
said Jean, 60, a wiry man in galoshes and a tattered straw hat.

On a recent morning, Jean had only two gallons of milk to sell at the drab, 
cement Lét Agogo plant on the edge of this market town 30 miles northeast of 
Port-au-Prince. He got 30 gourdes - 75 cents - per gallon. Jean used to sell 
five times that amount of milk. But bandits recently stole three of his five 
cows, and a fourth was about to calve.

Inside the plant, workers in hairnets, surgical masks and white jackets 
processed the milk and flavored it with guava, chocolate, coffee, strawberry, 
vanilla or apricot.

An eight-ounce Lét Agogo drink sells for 18 to 20 gourdes, just under 50 cents. 
Underscoring the depth of this country's poverty, that's still too expensive 
for many Haitians, including some Lét Agogo farmers.

"I hear it's good," Jean said matter of factly. "Maybe some day I can try it."
Copyright © 2005, Newsday, Inc.