Pelwatte Dairy to commission Rs 700m milk powder plant

By Lalin Fernandopulle

The second Rs. 700 million state-of-the-art milk powder manufacturing facility at Pelawatte will be commissioned by the end of this year, said Pelwatte Dairy, Chairman Ariyaseela Wickramanayake.

He said that the foundation for the ultra-modern facility was laid last week and work on the plant will be launched this month. "We hope to produce an additional 3,500 tonnes per annum and save the huge drain of foreign exchange on imports of dairy products. We completed the preliminary work of the project within a short time due to the procurement of machinery early this year from Europe," Wickramanayake said.

Sri Lanka spends around US $ 15 million per annum on the import of milk powder. The present facility produces around 3,500 tonnes.

The new facility will double production to around 7,000 tonnes a year and around 600 tonnes of milk powder will be produced per month.“We hope to provide a large number of employment opportunities to science and engineering graduates and the facility will also create direct and indirect employment to youth in the area,” Wickramanayake said.

Pelwatte Dairy collects milk from around 25,000 farmer families. The factory produces a large quantity of butter, yoghurt and ice cream per annum."We hope to export our products to Iran, Russia and African countries next year. Sri Lanka is yet to be self-sufficient in dairy products. However, the consumption of dairy products has increased sharply over the years," he said.

Wickramanayake said that the dairy industry has the potential to contribute to economic development.

Milk production also plays an important role in alleviating nutritional poverty and is a source of extensive employment opportunities.

He said that with reduction in the slaughter of cows, milk production has increased and added that there should be a sustainable program to boost dairy products and put an end to cheap imported products. The Government targets to increase dairy production to meet 50 percent of the country's needs by 2015.

The 2015 Budget has provided facilities for the diary industry which will help boost production and reduce imports, Wickramanayake said.

However, production is at an unsatisfactory level due to the low number of cows being milked.

The country milks only around 25 percent of its 1.2 million cows. Industry experts said that it is a challenging task, given the state of the industry, which only supplies approximately 20 percent of the domestic needs.

Two decades ago domestic sources of milk provided around 80 percent of country’s consumption needs. Increasing milk production is vital to boost nutrition levels among rural children and mothers.

Wickramanayake said that with the increase in milk powder production at the Pelwatte factories, the quantity of imported milk powder will be reduced and prices will come down.