Never-ending milk powder scarcity makes buying seem like narco deals

Some desperate Sri Lankans are resorting to extreme measures to buy powdered milk, an essential commodity for families with children and the elderly, and which has become scarce for nearly six months.

The Sunday Times asked twitter users what was the “craziest’’ thing they had to do to get their hands on milk powder during a time of severe scarcity.

Some are prepared to use fresh milk.

Chanakya Dissanayake, an executive at a private company, said he switched to the “environmentally friendlier and forex- saving option of fresh milk in returnable glass bottles.” He had observed that many local dairy companies had launched new fresh milk brands as the US dollar shortage in the country’s Central Bank worsened.

While many said they opted for fresh milk or stopped drinking milk altogether and chose black coffee, or tea without milk, instead, others had found creative ways to get their hands on the ‘contraband’.

Some consumers said the secretive measures they used made them feel like they were “buying drugs”.

“My mom’s brother shipped us some from Dubai,” one Twitter user said. She noted that her family has a network of people buying milk powder for everyone whenever they can. Many people are now adding milk powder to their overseas travel shopping lists.

Kapilan Sachchthanathan, another respondent, shared that he happened to be lucky enough to walk into a supermarket just as stock had arrived.

“I saw a cart full of milk when I walked into the supermarket, so I bought two packets there and then walked over to the next supermarket and bought two more from the new delivery there also,” he said.

Many respondents also referred to their milk suppliers as ‘dealers’.

“I buy four packets of milk and give the shopkeeper another Rs. 1,000,” another respondent said.

Many consumers were also being pushed to buy six packs of yoghurt along with milk powder. But, according to some consumers, shopkeepers were sometimes exploiting this as a way to get rid of excess stock that had expired.

“I found that the yoghurt had expired after I came home,’’ one said.

The milk shortage has continued for almost six months, as stocks come into ports on and off. According to Asoka Bandara, the vice president of the All- Island Dairy Association, the inability to open letters of credit for payment is a hurdle.

Mr. Bandara, who is also in management at Maliban, noted that a stock meant for December of last year had only come in last month.

“While some companies do have credit lines, the payments, once the credit period is up, are made in dollars which Sri Lanka does not have right now. If at least 50% of the LCs could be opened up it would help the industry a lot,” Mr. Bandara noted. Sri Lanka has a monthly milk powder requirement of about 7,000 metric tons, less than half of which is currently being supplied.

He also added that purchases made in panic were also worsening the shortages.

While local dairy companies had amped up production they can only meet about 40% of the market requirement, so far. Sri Lanka consumes 1,300 million tons of milk products, including ice cream and butter. The local contribution to this figure stands at just 450 million tons.

Mr. Bandara noted that while local dairy production had increased significantly over the last decade, it had fallen last year.

“Agriculture issues caused by the fertiliser problem had a big role to play in this,” he said.

“100% self- sufficiency is a myth, but we can definitely aim for a majority local supply,” he said, while adding that this would however, have to be a methodical and gradual process. “Selfsufficiency is a moving goal because as economies grow people generally consume more and populations grow at the same time too.”

While dairy production last year was derailed, he added that banning imports was not viable as it is important to give consumers a choice.

“Let consumers choose between local and imported milk based on what they’re willing to pay.”

What happens otherwise is the creation of unregulated markets and the supply of sub-par products that are not fit for consumption. ‘’