Sri Lankan government to set up two milk processing plants

Sri Lankan government plans to set up two processing plants in the country to enhance the production of liquid milk with a long shelf-life.


The Cabinet yesterday granted approval to state-owned Milco (Pvt.) Ltd. to expand its activities to supply liquid milk with long shelf-life to the Sri Lankan consumer.
Under the initiative, Milco is to establish two Ultra-Heat Treated (UHT) milk processing plants in Colombo and in Polonnaruwa. The two plants can produce processed milk with a shelf-life of 30-40 days. The liquid milk available in the market currently has only 3 days of shelf-life.
Milco (Pvt.) Ltd is to obtain a loan through its banks to fund the project, estimated to cost Rs.600 million.
The government anticipates the milk production to increase from the current 22% to 50% of the needs by 2015 as a result of the measures it has taken to develop the livestock industry. At present the existing processing capacity of Milco is not adequate to meet the growth in milk production.
The government is promoting the consumption of fresh milk among the public in a measure to save billions of rupees it spends on importing powdered milk. Annually 20 billion rupees are spent to import milk powder products.