Lankan milk powder in market shortly, boost for dairy industry

Pelwatte Sugar Company Ltd. (PSC) will produce milk powder within the next three weeks, said Chairman, PSC, Ariyaseela Wickramanayake.

Pelwatte milk powder will be the first locally produced milk powder by a fully Sri Lankan company and it would be a huge saving on foreign exchange to the country, he said

Ariyaseela Wickramanayake

The annual requirement of milk in Sri Lanka is around 60,000 tons and the country spends over US$ 300 million on imports to meet the need.

"Around 10 tons of milk powder will be manufactured daily at the Pelwatte Sugar Company meeting over 20 percent of the national requirement and employment will be provided to around 500 people in the area", Wickramanayake said.

The investment on the plant is Rs. 1.8 billion and it will be operated using Danish technology. Around 150,000 litres of milk will be bought daily from farmers. This will help promote the local dairy industry.

According to Central Bank statistics there are around 1.5 million milch cows of which only 250,000 are milked meeting 35 percent of the national milk need.

"More factories and taxes on milk powder imports will make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in milk within the next three years", Wickramanayake said.

"Grass lands in the North and the East must be made full use of and dairy farmers should be supported. A change in attitudes will help us achieve our goals", he said.

Pelwatte Sugar produces flavoured milk and a wide range of milk products such as yoghurt, ice-cream and butter.

PSC was incorporated in 1981 and was converted to a public limited liability concern in 1982. It was first quoted in the Colombo Stock Exchange in 1984.

In 1990 the company changed its name to Pelwatte Sugar Industries Ltd. (PSI).

The extensive site at Buttala in the Moneragala district houses the main factory, several subsidiary companies that produce sugar, alcohol, ethanol, power generation and bio-compost.

Pelwatte Dairy Industries (Pvt) Ltd. is a subsidiary of PSI Ltd. and it is a project approved under the Gamata Karmantha, the 300 factory program of the Government. LF