Contributing to the country’s growing demand for dairy based products, Cargills Quality Dairy (Pvt) Ltd, launched Kotmale butter and Kotmale Cheddar cheese to the local market last week.
“Cargills is the only company that has invested Rs 6 billion in developing the dairy industry through the acquisition of the Kotmale factory in Banduragala in Gampaha.
The investment has been spent on facility upgrading and we expect to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in milk in the near future,” Chief Operating Officer, Kotmale Dairy Milk, Suranga Wijesundara said.
With the Cargills diversification into dairy industry, the country has saved US $ 25 million, he said.
The company collects 150,000 litres of milk daily from dairy farmers at their six collecting centres across five provinces. There are 15,000 milk farmers registered with Cargills to supply milk on a daily basis. There are 250,000 milk farmers in Sri Lanka. Cargills has a growing reputation for its ice cream range. The dairy based products of Cargills are exported to India, Maldives and Qatar at present with plans to expand the foot print in future.
“We record 15% growth in milk collection annually and this is a healthy growth rate,” he said.
“The local dairy industry needs the Government’s support and we promote liquid milk as a source of protein supplement. We need to save foreign exchange that is spent on importing milk powder which is as high as US $ 278 million,” Wijesundara said. Cargills Quality Dairy (Pvt) Ltd works through a farmer society model with the milk farmers and has an extension program to educate them on the quality of milk and standards to ensure high-end products.
