Sri Lanka inks dairy agreement with New Zealand

External Affairs Minister G. L. Peiris and New Zealand Foreign Affairs Minister, Murray McCully signed a dairy cooperation agreement on the sidelines of the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Colombo recently.

Fonterra Director and farmer-shareholder, John Monaghan, who was in Colombo representing Fonterra at the Commonwealth Business Forum, said the agreement will help formalise and support further public and private sector dairy sector cooperation between the two countries.

"The New Zealand dairy industry and Fonterra have a long history working with the Sri Lankan dairy industry. Fonterra has been collecting milk for the past 16 years to support the development of fresh dairy products," he said.

"The agreement signals a clear path for the New Zealand Government and Fonterra to significantly increase New Zealand's investment in dairy development in Sri Lanka over the next decade," Monaghan said.

As Fonterra expands its business in Sri Lanka the Cooperative is looking at significantly increasing local milk collection to build on its commitment to the local dairy industry.

"Fonterra will invest in model farms to train local farmers and provide a sustainable milk source for Fonterra's fresh dairy business; invest in more milk collection centres around the country to enhance quality milk collection and build on farmer education and development programs to ensure more farmers produce larger volumes of quality milk," he said.

Fonterra began collecting milk from Sri Lankan dairy farmers in 1997 to support the development of a yoghurt business in Sri Lanka under the Anchor Newdale brand.

In the same year, the Cooperative launched a farmer development program to help farmers up skill in the areas of milk quality, production and sustainability.

The Fonterra farmer education and training program was launched this year. During the three-year program, participants will learn a range of new skills including how to detect and treat the early stages of mastitis; implement best practice farm health and safety practices and understand more about on-farm milk quality improvement techniques.

Managing Director, Fonterra Brands Lanka, Leon Clement, said that by working with local farmers to improve the quality of milk, Fonterra has increased local milk collection to 30,000 litres a day.

"Fonterra is built on more than 200 years of dairying tradition and we want to use our knowledge and expertise to help develop Sri Lankan dairy capabilities to create better and more prosperous farms.

"By investing in local farmer education and development and training employees at our milk collection centres, we have enhanced the quality of the milk collected over the past decade," he said. "Under the dairy cooperation agreement, Fonterra will build on this further," Clement said.