125,000 LITRES OF MILK THROWN AWAY DAILY: DAIRY FARMERS

Dairy farmers in the country have expressed concern about the ongoing wastage of more than 125,000 litres of milk a day due to the arbitrary quality control methods and other issues affecting them.

National Organiser of the All Ceylon Farmers’ Congress Namal Karunaratne told the media that a large quantity of milk was regularly flushed down drains while the government imported milk powder in almost unlimited quantities.

He pointed out that dairy farmers were compelled to discard a large quantity of milk due to the arbitrary quality control methods introduced by officials to avoid its purchase. He said a conspiracy was being hatched by officials to cripple the country’s milk production at the instigation of milk powder importers.

“A milk powder manufacturing plant in Ambewela with the capacity to produce milk powder using 300,000 litres of liquid milk a day is yet to be commissioned. Construction work at the factory was completed in 2015. A large quantity of milk flows down drains. The purchasing price of milk has been reduced in a large percentage. A conspiracy to ruin the daily industry in the country is being hatched by authorities. They refuse to purchase a large quantity of milk under the pretext of quality control. However, the government is not concerned with the quality of imported milk powder. The government imported 2,000 milk cows and distributed them among senior politicians and ministry officials rather than farmers. Meanwhile, Rs.1.5 million of the National Livestock Fund has been misused and spent on fuel,” he said.

He further said dairy farmers all over the country would be mobilised to launch a massive campaign unless the government intervened to protect dairy farmers from the ongoing conspiracy.