Move to register dairy company warehouses

The Government has made it mandatory for dairy food companies to register their warehouses for milk powder and reveal their locations, in a move to protect consumers from artificial milk powder shortages.

Co-operatives and Internal Trade Minister Johnston Fernando said a Gazette notification would be issued making it mandatory for milk food companies to reveal and register the locations of their stores with the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA).

The Secretary of the Ministry has been instructed to issue the Gazette notification. The Minister told Parliament last week that the measure would empower the CAA to conduct inspections round-the-clock. This step follows the discovery made by the CAA of huge milk powder stocks in warehouses of milk food companies which haven't been released to the market.

The Minister warned milk powder companies not to hide milk powder stocks and inconvenience consumers by creating an artificial shortage with the intention of effecting a price hike.

The Consumer Protection Authority has, in the meantime, informed the public that no decision has been taken to increase the price of milk powder and there could be no milk powder shortage in the market.

Minister Fernando also said rules and regulations to control the prices of pharmaceutical products will also be effective from January.

He assured the public that traders will not be allowed to increase the prices of essential commodities during the festive season and that the Government will take measures to keep the prices stable.