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.

source - www.dailynews.lk

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