Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka, the dairy co-operative behind Anchor, recently surpassed Rs. 3 billion in investments, marking its commitment to build a thriving local dairy industry and boosting the availability of quality, local dairy nutrition for Sri Lankans, the company said in a press release.
These long-term initiatives span the breadth of the dairy value chain with the local dairy farmer at its centre.
From providing thousands of local farmer families with support to uplift milk productivity and milk quality, to providing new farmers direct access to milk collection and chilling facilities, to investing in local dairy processing and storage facilities, to sustainable projects that benefit farmer families; three years of investment have led to a steady development in the local value chain. Managing Director of Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka and the Indian Subcontinent, Sunil Sethi, said the dairy co-operative has been enabling dairy industry to better meet national nutritional requirements.
“As we work towards building a thriving Sri Lankan dairy industry, increased and consistent demand for local, fresh dairy nutrition is just as important as maintaining a steady supply of high quality products. Recognising this, we have most recently focused our investment in strengthening the reach of the dairy cold chain across the country, as well as supporting improvements in milk quality and collection,” said Sethi.
In many regions across the country, limited chilling facilities prevent small stores and outlets from providing consumers with fresh dairy products such as yoghurt and flavoured milk.
“We embarked on a drive to rapidly expand reach and consumption of our high quality local dairy nutrition in partnership with medium and small-scale outlets all over the island. Initially, we expanded our footprint by increasing the number of outlets offering these products from 25,000 to over 40,000,” said Sethi.
This rapid expansion has resulted in the installation of over 3,000 chilling facilities in trade outlets over the past year, helping more people across Sri Lanka access the goodness of local dairy nutrition.