Dairy producers want milk powder imports halted

Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera

At a meeting, with Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera on Tuesday (1), local Dairy producers called for a halt to the import of milk powder, due to a significant increase in local milk production this year.

Shortage of animal feed and the economic crisis in the past two years, had caused a downturn in the local Dairy industry. However, presently, local milk production is experiencing an upswing, said the government-owned Dairy companies Milco, National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) and the private sector-owned Pelwatta Dairy Co.

It was revealed that, in the last six months, the NLDB increased its milk production to 2,599,617 litres, while Milco increased its output to 19,152,766 litres, which is a 30 per cent increase compared with last year

Head of Pelwatta Dairy, Ariyasheela Wickramanayake complained of their inability to sell 500 metric tons of their locally produced full cream milk powder, due to the availability of imported milk powder. Especially, when local milk production has increased, and continues to do so. Hence, these companies requested the minister to stop the import of milk powder.

In consequence, the Minister instructed officials of the Livestock Division of the Agriculture Ministry to prepare a report on how best to address the issues arising from the increase in milk production in the country, which will be submitted to the Cabinet for a decision on the import of milk powder.

Meanwhile, Milco, which had suspended its production of milk powder and Highland frozen milk, due to the shortage of liquid milk in the last two years, had started production again this year. In addition, the NLDB has also increased production of all its Dairy products.