Soaring price of ingredients hits small scale traders:

Yoghurt, a thriving industry

By Ananda Kannangara

Have you heard the story of a young man aged 27, a Diploma holder in Agriculture from the Gannoruwa Agriculture Training Institute, Peradeniya who had given up an executive post in a milk food manufacturing company to become a yoghurt manufacturer?

The Diploma holder, a resident of Kalutara, Simon Subasinghe said he was employed in a milk food manufacturing company for over five years as factory manager. He learned the art of making yoghurt while working in the factory. During his leisure he worked with the factory workers and it helped him to start his own factory.

The Sunday Observer last week visited several places in the South to interview yoghurt manufacturers, in Kalutara, Beruwela, Aluthgama, Bentota and Induruwa. Yoghurt making has become a self-employment project of housewives and young school leavers in the Bentota, Beruwala and Hikkaduwa areas.

Our visit to Simon's house is unforgettable. It is located in a rural area where the roads are filled with mud and potholes. The narrow stretch to Simon's house was not motorable and we had to walk about two kilometres. The poor condition of the road is no drawback for Simon and his son Nilantha to carry out the business. Even traders in the village visit his home to buy the products. Simon said in addition to yoghurt he supplies ice packets to school canteens in the area and also to hospital canteens.

Making yoghurt. Pix: Sarath Siriwardana, Kalutara district Rowing -Cor.

Pouring the processed yoghurt milk into cups

Processed yoghurt ready to be placedin the incubator

Processed yoghurt in a factory

Making ice packets

Most villagers in the area have cattle farms. These cattle farms are not as big as the farms in Nuwara Eliya, Kothmale or Ambewela. Villagers owned a few milch cows and provided the daily supply to Simon mudalali. Money is paid on Saturdays and each person gets around Rs. 2,250 a month for raw milk.

Making yoghurt has now become a large industry in the country. Some housewives too are in the habit of making yoghurt for home consumption as they dislike buying from outlets, believing that they are not properly manufactured.

A prominent yoghurt manufacturer in Bentota and owner of Donigala Farm Milk Foods , Keerthi Tilakaratne said he started the yoghurt manufacturing business in 1988. The factory is located behind his house where eight workers including four women are employed.

Keerthi said at the beginning there were only two workers in his small factory and he had no machinery or other equipment to turn out yoghurt. His products are bought by traders in the area and the owners of school canteens. In addition, Keerthi turned out ice cream cups and ice packets as by-products.

Keerthi said he also supplies his products to a few tourist hotels in the area. As there is a good demand for his products, Keerthi has decided to open a new factory in the same area within the next few weeks.

Unlike the old factory, Keerthi's new factory will be equipped with sophisticated machinery and he wished to recruit about twenty workers to the new factory.

Keerthi proudly said he uses only fresh cow's milk to make yoghurt and other by- products such as ice cream and ice packets.

He supplies his products to traders in Kalutara, Katikurunda, Matugama, Uragaha, Ambalangoda, Bentota and several school canteens and tourist hotels in the area.

Keerthi said people who had cattle in the area supply about 400 litres of fresh cow's milk to his factory every morning and he turns out about 1500 yoghurt cups everyday.

He said yoghurt could be made even without any machinery. The manufacturing process is not difficult. Accordingly, fresh cow's milk is boiled well and left to cool for about one and a half hours. Thereafter, the milk is strained into a plastic can and mixed with ingredients such as vanilla, colouring, gelatine and culture (Muhun in Sinhala). The processed milk is thereafter poured into small yoghurt cups and placed in an incubator for about two hours to harden.

We also visited a few other areas in the district to view the art of yoghurt manufacturing. A school leaver, Gunith Ranasinghe 19, said he had no intention of pursuing higher studies as he has decided to help his father in his yoghurt manufacturing industry.

He said three persons including a female are employed in the small factory in their home and they earned around Rs. 80,000 a month from the sale of yoghurt.

Our journey to Kommala village to meet yoghurt manufacturers was strenuous. The remote village is located a few kilometres from Induruwa. As the gravel road to the village is in a poor condition, we had to walk in search of a prominent curd and yoghurt manufacturer in the area.

The father of three, Anthony Fernando, 60, is the owner of a curd and yoghurt factory. The half-built factory had a galvanised roof. About seven persons including two women are employed. The entire work is done manually. There were milk cans and packets of ingredients in a small room.

Anthony was happy to talk to us about his yoghurt making industry. He said some electronic media personnel too visited the village recently to interview yoghurt manufacturers for a documentary.

He said there is brisk business for curd during the festival months of December, January and April. Foreigners who visited hotels enjoyed yoghurt with treacle.

Yoghurt is made in two varieties, namely, plain and fruit yoghurt. There is a demand for the plain yoghurt rather than the fruit yoghurt.

A long-standing yoghurt manufacturer related an unforgettable story of how he was reprimanded by the Principal of a school for selling yoghurt near a school in Ambalangoda.

He said as schoolchildren liked yoghurt, he was in the habit of selling them near the school. He had inadvertantly sold an outdated yoghurt cup to a child who developed a stomach ailment.

The parents of the child had complained the matter to the Principal of the school who warned him not to sell yoghurt in open places and to sell them in cafeterias.

Norbet Weerasinghe, a famous yoghurt manufacturer in Uragaha in Bentota said even traders from Wellawatta and Bambalapitiya ordered a large stock of yoghurt during the Hindu festival months of July and August.

A long-standing yoghurt manufacturer, Lalith Weerakoon of Alutgama said he earns about Rs. 75,000 a month by selling yoghurt to tourist hotels in Beruwala, Bentota and Kalutara.

He said he plans to start a small yoghurt factory in Galle to cater to the local and foreign travellers.

Lalith called upon the Government to extend a helping hand to small scale yoghurt manufacturers to develop their business activities by granting bank loans.

Kamal Rathnasiri of Donigala in Bentota said about 15 families in the area are engaged in the yoghurt making industry and proposed to the authorities to introduce a scheme to grant loans through Sanasa Banks to help the small scale yoghurt manufacturers.

A yoghurt manufacturer, R. A. Lionel, 57, known as `Yoghurt Uncle' said unlike earlier it is difficult for small scale manufacturers due to the high cost of the ingredients.

"The price of ingredients is increasing in the open market daily, but the price of a cup of yoghurt cannot be increased on par with the soaring prices of ingredients. Therefore, I appeal to the area Divisional Secretariats to register yoghurt manufacturers and provide them with ingredients at reasonable prices,".

A female yoghurt manufacturer Mary Peris said she takes her products to hotels and restaurants in Colombo. She said she earns Rs. 50,000 a month selling yoghurt straightway to customers. She advised the unemployed youth to start making yoghurt as a self employment project.