• Initial investment of the plant is Rs. 1.5 billion

• Three more similar plants to be commissioned in future

  By Yakuta Dawood [caption id="attachment_140724" align="alignright" width="388"] Pelwatte Dairy Industries Ltd. Founder and Chairman Ariyaseela Wickramanayake[/caption] One of the largest dairy processing factories, Pelwatte Dairy has taken one step forward in achieving its goal of expanding its wings into international territories by establishing its first export plant in Kurunegala, which is scheduled to be completed in the next three months. Speaking to The Sunday Morning Business, Pelwatte Dairy Industries Ltd. Founder and Chairman Ariyaseela Wickramanayake stated that the aim of starting exports is to bring in foreign income into the country whilst also reducing the outflow of foreign exchange that is caused through the importation of milk powder from New Zealand and other countries. “The plant will be established in Kurunegala within the next three months. However, this is delayed due to the prevailing Covid-19 and several government regulation issues, as we had initially planned to start production for export purposes by May 2021,” Wickramanayake noted. When inquired about the initial investment, he stated that a total of Rs. 1.5 billion will be used at the start and then would continuously invest up to the next five years. Furthermore, he noted that this is the first export plant, but after establishing this, Pelwatte Dairy will come up with another three export plants at different locations in the near future. “We are taking over the land right now, which will happen within a week or two, and within three to four months, we will be fully establishing the Kurunegala plant. We have paid all the advance money and construction is set to commence immediately after we get the land,” Wickramanayake highlighted. He had not initially planned to invest the time and money in this sector. After purchasing 400 cows from a Maharagama temple at the start, he set up Pelwatte in 2006 in order to specialise in milk processing, animal feed, and dairy products. “After getting cows, I got a 20,000-litre processing capacity plant from Denmark and we started producing excess milk powder following that year. We later expanded the spray drying technology plant by getting down two more plants from Denmark to increase the milk production,” he noted. At the moment, Pelwatte Dairy is a fast-growing organisation engaged in the manufacture and distribution of superior-quality dairy products in Sri Lanka whilst producing, viz. liquid milk, milk powder, yoghurt, butter, ice cream, and ghee. According to Wickramanayake, the factories produce 10 tonnes of milk powder, 50,000 yoghurt cups, and two tonnes of butter each day with a total of 4,000 bottles of liquid milk within an hour. “Currently, we produce almost 50% of our national requirement and if we milk another 250,000 cows out of 1.2 million cows, we will be self-sufficient in milk and will be exporting value-added dairy products such as milk powder and butter,” he added. Moreover, when inquired about what the challenges are in the industry, he said that there is absolutely no obstacle, including the Covid-19 condition, as Pelwatte Dairy is the only company in Sri Lanka that is providing this service. “I started Pelwatte by accident. I’m the largest milk producer in the country, hence there are no challenges as of yet. The Kurunegala export plant will very soon increase the production capacity and increase its sales to Japan, China, and several other countries,” he added. According to Wickramanayake, Sri Lanka is already self-sufficient in the production of milk, even though Sri Lanka is importing at a cost of $ 300 million per year. Hence, while commenting in this regard, he stated that it is important for Sri Lanka to produce at least 600 million litres of milk each year, which wouldn’t be an impossible task to achieve if proper outlining of work is performed. “The productivity of the cattle and quality of dairy cattle have to be improved to increase the milk production in the country, along with the dairy infrastructure, processing plants, and equipment, and farm management services will have to be overhauled,” he noted. With reference to the information provided by him on the action plan to improve milk production, the information provided noted that purchasing milk from local farmers might provide them with the necessary financial encouragement to try out the advanced methodologies of increasing productivity along a better breed of dairy cattle like Jerseys and Friesians have to be imported and integrated with the local breed to improve the genetics. Subsequently, comparing Sri Lanka with the neighbouring country India, Wickramanayake said that India today is the largest milk producer and consumer in the world, larger than New Zealand’s milk production. “India’s national milk average per cow is 2.2 litres. As we have better weather conditions and domesticated cows, we think we could be self-sufficient in milk once again and save around $ 500 million, which we are using to import milk powder, butter, ice cream, and various other value-added dairy products,” he said. Meanwhile, during the 2021 Budget, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Mahinda Rajapaksa said that a key policy priority of the Government is to gradually reduce the foreign exchange utilised on the importation of milk powder, which amounts to more than $ 300 million per annum, and also meet the increasing demand for liquid milk through domestic dairy production.