Pelwatte Dairies invests Rs 500 m more
To launch powdered milk in two weeks:
Shirajiv SIRIMANE
Pelwatte Dairies in Buttala will be investing Rs 500 million to
increase capacity at their Pelwatte factory. Pelwatte Dairies Chairman
Ariyaseela Wickramanayake said they will be launching their full cream
powdered milk to the local market in two weeks.
“We have already invested Rs 1.5 billion for the state of the art
factory and have imported machines from India for powdered milk
operations,” he said.
Wickramanayake added that the aim of the Rs 500 million investments
will be to double their production from 10 tonnes. The production of
milk powder had already begun and they are now in the process of packing
them in 400 gram packets.
Pelwatte Dairies recently imported ‘milk chillers’ to intensify their
milk collection process.
Pelwatte Dairy is the only 100 percent privately owned dairy in Sri
Lanka and disclosed that the Rs 1.2 billion investment was from funds
generated within the company.
It is an approved project under divisional secretary area based 300
industries program, Gamata Karmantha, initiated by the Industrial
Development Ministry in Sri Lanka.
The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka has granted BOI status for this
project.
Pelwatte Dairies also manufactures yoghurt, ice cream, sterilized
milk and butter and the products are already in the market.
They will be introducing the Pelwatte slim milk powder in December.
Sri Lanka annually spends Rs 3 billion each year to import powdered
milk and he said that more Sri Lankan blue chip companies should build
powdered milk plants so that this foreign exchange could be saved.
“Central Bank statistics show that there are 1.5 million cows in Sri
Lanka and only 250, 000 are being milked.”
He said that in a bid to get more fresh milk they are in the process
of training dairy farmers on scientific animals husbandry, concentrating
on basic needs of animal such as housing, feeding and maintaining
hygienic condition and, upgrading animals.
Increasing the productivity of animals by providing proper quality
feed is now being done.
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