Self-sufficiency in milk won’t work without consuming it-kotmale Chairman
The Government’s noble intention of self-sufficiency in milk cannot be obtained solely through an increase in production, but corresponding increase in consumption of milk by the Sri Lankan consumers, Chairman of Kotmale Holdings PLC stated.
“It is imperative that both the government and the dairy companies actively promote consumption of liquid milk and liquid milk-based local produce to support this national objective,” Stuart Young, Chairman, Kotmale said in his message to the company’s FY12 annual report.
The Ministry of Livestock and Rural Community Development aims to bring about self -sufficiency in milk by 2015 through the implementation of an extensive master plan.
“To achieve this feat, the current milk production of 253 million liters per annum should reach 732 million liters by 2015. This is to meet the average dietary allowance of 100 ml per person per day,” Young explained.
However Sri Lanka presently imports milk products to the tune of US$ 346 million per annum which makes up 1.7 percent of the country’s import bill. “While the supply side saw a favorable increase in volumes, the inability of the dairy manufacturing sector to process the higher volumes had a compounded impact on the industry,” he added.
The unfortunate turn of events saw smallholder dairy farmers resorting to extreme measures. “This further reiterates the need for the implementation of an industry master plan,” the Kotmale Chairman stressed.
He pointed out that establishing a higher number of self-managed farmer societies that in turn partner the private sector that is willing to invest in infrastructure development, should be a key focus. “This would encourage more commercially-viable dairy development with on-site processing,” he said.
Introducing a culture of fresh milk consumption as mentioned before, and eliminating inefficiencies in the milk marketing chain through greater private sector intervention, would also have far reaching results, Young further noted.
For the year ended March 31, 2012, Kotmale posted a net profit of Rs.83.4 million as against Rs.75.3 million in the previous year.