Livestock Development Minister commends Nestlé’s continued commitment to local dairy industry

• Nestlé to contribute 1.7 billion rupees to Sri Lanka’s dairy industry in 2010

Arumugam Thondaman, Minister for Livestock Development, visited the Nestlé factory at Pannala last week, where he commended Nestlé’s leading role in their robust drive to grow the dairy sector in Sri Lanka.

Nestlé Lanka is involved in the collection of fresh milk and has been developing the dairy sector from as far back as the early 1980’s. Today, Nestlé Lanka (PLC) is the single largest private sector collector of fresh milk in the country. The year-to-date growth of milk collection is encouraging, with an impressive double digit growth on top of a close to 10% growth last year. Nestlé Lanka procures today, an average of 115,000 litres of milk from 13,000 local dairy farmers every day.

In 2009, Nestlé Lanka pioneered the resuming of milk collection on a large scale in the North-Eastern districts, upholding its commitment to support the Government’s initiative to develop these areas through the Nagenahira Navodaya and Uthuru Wasanthaya programs. The Honourable Minister noted that Nestlé Lanka will have completed the construction of an additional 22 chilling centres by end September this year. These chilling centers are serviced by close to 1000 milk collection points, island wide.

Minister Thondaman showed keen interest in Nestlé’s dairy infrastructure development, which has created significant employment and economic opportunities for rural farmers. The Minister visited two such dairy farms and a chilling centre in the Kuliyapitiya area during his tour, and also graced a farmer gathering as chief guest.

As part of Nestlé Lanka’s initiative to assist farmers develop their dairy business, many farmers received valuable hampers containing cattle feed and also pamphlets containing information on animal health, milking and proper milk handling, etc. The Minister also distributed milk churns to dairy farmers at the meeting.

Nestlé Lanka promotes best practices for high quality milk procurement, with aid encompassing livestock health, breeding, milking, hygiene, sterile handling and storage, developing pasture and feed with farmer incentives for artificial insemination. Testing equipment has been installed at all Nestlé’s chilling centres to ensure and control the collection of the highest quality milk, to which end the Company works closely with relevant authorities; the government veterinary department, and public health officers, in training & educating farmers. The success of this strong milk collection operation has also been largely due to the combined support of the Ministry of Livestock Development, Divisional Secretariats and community / village leaders.

At the end of the Honourable Minister’s visit, the Secretary for Livestock Development congratulated Nestlé Lanka for their overall commitment to develop the country’s dairy industry.

Photo caption: (from left) David Saudan, Managing Director, Nestlé Lanka PLC and Arumugam Thondaman, Minister for Livestock and Dairy, presenting a milk churn to a farmer.