Sri Lanka suspends controversial dairy cow imports from Australia
The Sunday Times probe highlighted crisis on February 24
Sri Lanka has suspended controversial dairy cow imports from Australia and a decision on the future of the project is to be taken next week.
“We have suspended the project and the Rural Economy Ministry’s Steering Committee on this project is scheduled to meet on April 11 (Thursday) to take a decision on how to proceed,” ministry Secretary K.D.S. Ruwanchandra told the Sunday Times last morning.
This was as Wellard Rural Exports Pty Ltd., the agent and transporter of the dairy cows based in Australia, on Thursday issued a strong statement that efforts to resolve the current issue have been ongoing for some time and are continuing.
“Wellard is in negotiations with the Government of Sri Lanka to make changes to the programme to prevent a reoccurrence of these issues for any future shipments. No cattle have been shipped since November 2017 and no more cattle will be shipped until changes to the farm selection criteria have been agreed on,” stated Wellard.
The Sunday Times on February 24 published a full-page detailed investigation on this crisis headlined ‘ Milky dreams turn sour’.
Meanwhile, the aggrieved dairy farmers have petitioned the Presidential Commission of Inquiry to Investigate Corruption and Fraud Allegedly Committed in State Institutions and the proceedings are ongoing.
In 2014, a Cabinet memorandum had proposed the importation of 20,000 cows in stages for private farmers to improve the dairy industry, under an agreement between the Sri Lankan and Australian governments. Wellard Rural Exports had been selected to supply the dairy cows.
But with the change of government in 2015, the project had been temporarily suspended. However, in July 2015, it had been resurrected and approved by the new government. In September 2015, fresh loan agreements had been requested from the two international banks – Export Finance Insurance Corporation of Australia and Cooperative RaboBank of the Netherlands.
Thereafter, the then Livestock Development Ministry (currently the Rural Economy Ministry) had decided to implement the project in stages. Under Stage I, 5,000 animals were to be imported and depending on its success the balance 15,000 imports were due to take place under State II.
By December 2016, the loan agreements amounting to US$ 73.95 million had been signed with the two foreign banks, with the ministry placing advertisements calling for “expressions of interest from entrepreneurs” to establish dairy farms with 10 or more cows by January 2017.
In 2017, Stage I had been implemented as two phases -- in May, under Phase I, the first batch of 2,000 ‘pregnant dairy heifers’ had arrived from New Zealand at the Trincomalee harbour and distributed to 21 farmers. In December, under Phase II, the second batch of 3,000 had arrived from Australia to be distributed to 47 farmers.
The agony of a milky dream which turned sour for many of the 68 Sri Lankan farmers who were part of a government project to import high- yielding pregnant cows from New Zealand and Australia has caused waves in Australia.
Wellard Rural Exports Pty Ltd., the agent and transporter of the dairy cows, headquartered in Fremantle, Australia, on Thursday issued a strong statement that efforts to resolve the current issue have been ongoing for some time and are continuing. Wellard is in negotiations with the Government of Sri Lanka to make changes to the programme to prevent a reoccurrence of these issues for any future shipments.
“No cattle have been shipped since November 2017 and no more cattle will be shipped until changes to the farm selection criteria have been agreed on, which is unlikely to occur this year,” stated Wellard, while the plight of the Sri Lankan farmers whose dreams have turned into nightmares hit the headlines Down Under.
On February 24, the Sunday Times published a full- page detailed investigation on the imported dairy cow crisis headlined ‘ Milky dreams turn sour’ ( http://www.sundaytimes.lk/190224/news/milky-dream-turns-sour-farmers-337867.html ).
Point-by-point, the Sunday Times turned the spotlight on the grievances of the farmers including how many farmers have been forced to close their farms; how many cows have died; the “unfair” prices paid by the farmers for the cows; quarantine procedures not being followed; how some cows were not pregnant and how others had aborted on the way to Sri Lanka; the diseases the cows were afflicted with; the high cost of feed; the promised milk production not becoming a reality; the issues with the price being paid for milk; and the lack of technical support.
The Australian media, meanwhile, took up the issue, with ‘Australian cattle exported to Sri Lanka dying……’ being the lead story on the website of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ( ABC) on Thursday, while ‘ The Land’ dubbed in Australia as “the really big rural paper read by every farmer” also turned its focus on this story with ‘Sri Lankan dairy farmers cry foul over dud dairy cows’.
When the cow- imports were raised in Parliament in March Rural Economy Minister P. Harrison had, according to media reports, outlined the colossal waste of public funds that had been allowed under the guise of import substitution under the previous government.
The Sunday Times, meanwhile, is still awaiting a response to the second set of questions sent by email on February 20 to the Rural Economy Ministry’s Project Director for the dairy cow imports, Dr. Sagarika Sumanasekara. Even though she initially responded that she would answer those queries by March 13, there has been absolute silence. Messages and calls to her mobile, the last being on Friday, were unanswered.
Dr. Sumanasekara’s replies to the first set of questions were published by the Sunday Times on February 24.
When the Sunday Times called a Deputy Director of the ministry’s Livestock Development Section, Dr. Niroshan Gamage on Friday in the light of the Australian reaction, he declined to comment. Dr. Gamage is involved in the project and was part of the team which selected the cows in Australia before importation to Sri Lanka.
As an outcry arose in Australia, Wellard issued one statement on March 18 in which it stated that Sri Lanka is a developing country and the dairy export programme has successfully reduced Sri Lanka’s reliance on imported, powdered milk; fostered the growth of the Sri Lankan dairy industry and its support services; and upgraded the Sri Lankan dairy industry’s herd management skills.
A handful of the 68 farmers selected by the Sri Lankan Government to receive some of the 5,000 cattle shipped to date did however fail to follow the prescribed herd management advice processes, which has caused some animal welfare issues on those farms. As a result, the farmer selection criteria will change, it said.
Wellard issued another statement on April 4 that wished to confirm six points with respect to its dairy heifer programme supplying cattle to the Government of Sri Lanka. The points were:
There was a successful pilot programme in Sri Lanka in 2013 which gave all parties the confidence that the main programme could be run successfully. Wellard alerted the general public on 18 March 2018 that it was experiencing some challenges in Sri Lanka (see press release: http://wellard.com.au/wellardto- make- changes- to- sri- lankadairy- program/). This was despite the benefits that the programme was achieving and the provision of technical support by Wellard, which was supposed to end six months after the heifers were delivered to the Federal Government of Sri Lanka but continues to this day. Efforts to resolve the current issue have been ongoing for some time and are continuing Wellard is in negotiations with the Government of Sri Lanka to make changes to the program to prevent a reoccurrence of these issues for any future shipments No cattle have been shipped since November 2017 and no more cattle will be shipped until changes to the farm selection criteria have been agreed, which is unlikely to occur this year The animals provided to Sri Lanka were healthy and free of disease. Relevant health certificat e s, provided by the Government veterinarians from Sri Lanka and Australia before the heifers were exported, can be viewed by clicking on http:// www. wellard. com. au/ wp- content/ uploads/ 2019/ 04/ Health- Certificate- Swagman101-Portland.pdf