Marking the over 45 years old development cooperation between Sri Lanka and France, the government of the French Republic agreed to extend its assistance to Sri Lanka, by providing an Euro 13.9 million (SLR 2,514 million) concessional loan for the implementation of six mini dairy projects .
The proposed project will include complete modernization of the pre-selected six mini dairy cooperative societies and organizations by establishing state of the art equipment chains to produce pasteurized milk and sterilized milk at a capacity of 4,500 liters per day. The high quality equipment will allow stable, homogenized and high quality products with computerized monitoring. In addition, technical assistance will also be extended to dairy farmers in order to improve the breeding process by a French non-profit entity and to carry-out a proper market survey on the dairy sector of Sri Lanka.
It is also expected that, this initiative will support the government’s ambitious target to achieve self-sufficiency in dairy production by 2020 and to contribute to closing the gap between demand for dairy and local supply. Secretary to the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media, Dr. R. H. S. Samaratunga signed the relevant agreement on behalf of the Government of Sri Lanka and Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of France in Sri Lanka, Isabelle Miscot, signed on behalf of the Government of the French Republic, at the Ministry of Finance and Mass Media, last week.