Milco's milk collection up 2.66 million litres

by L. S. A. Wedaarachchi

Milco Ltd buys more than fifty per cent of the total milk produced in Sri Lanka. Milco Ltd bought 49 million litres of milk last year, an increase of 2.66 million litres of milk compared to 2005.

In November 2005 the farm gate price was increased by Rs. 3 per litre by the Government as an incentive to increase milk production in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka can also be self sufficient in milk by implementing a well planned strategy as our neighbouring country India achieved a few decades ago. Twelve billion rupees are being spent annually to import milk powder.

According to Bharatha Dodankotuwa, chairman Milco Ltd, the measures taken by the Government to encourage the milk farmer community had yielded fruitful results. At present 130,000 litres of milk are received daily by the Milco collecting centres throughout the country. This is above the daily target of 123,000 litres.

The statistics of the Milco company clearly indicate the vast expansion of the fresh milk sector in Sri Lanka. Forty-thousand milk farmers are registered as milk suppliers for Milco Ltd., organised through 1,400 self management milk farmer societies.

Three-hundred newly set up milk farmer societies join the farmer society network annually according to the chairman. Milco's gross turnover increased in 2006 to Rs. 2,362 million, the highest turnover for the last six years.

The chairman said that although the gross profit had increased last year, the gross profits ratio had remained the same as in the previous year.

"This is mainly due to the milk purchasing price increase offered by the Government and the increase of bowser transport costs due to the fuel price hike as well as the cost of dairy development, he said.

Another step taken by the Government for the benefit of the milk farmer community is setting up a Milco, Milk Farmer Security Fund, which completed its third year recently.

The fund caters to over forty-thousand milk farmer members. Rs. 6.5 million was contributed by Milco Ltd., to the fund.

Various benefits were also provided to the milk farmers including financial assistance in the event of death of a family member, children's university education - wedding of a member, attainment of age of a daughter, audio visuals for visually impaired children and a gift pack for childbirth.

The Chairman said that plans are under way to improve and replace plant and machinery at the Colombo and Digana Plants.

The other plans are the expansion of production capacity of pasteurised milk to increase the consumption of liquid milk in keeping with the ideals of the 'Mahinda Chinthana'.

Establishment of retail outlets at all major railway stations, hospitals, government organisations and major cities, extension of school children's milk program to several districts, implementation of the Kirigammana Dairy Village Project and standardisation of milk collecting centres are some of the activities in the pipeline.

For the convenience of the customer, Milco increased its sales outlets from six to twenty-five last year where all Milco products are available mainly in Colombo and major cities.

Seventy Milco franchise shops and 100 Milco agents are being administered under the direction of the sales and marketing division of Milco Ltd.

Milco Products such as pasteurised milk packs, yoghurt, ice cream, cheese and highland milk powder are freely available in 35,000 outlets throughout the island.

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