Financial Times

Fonterra to expand local milk output by 100 %
Fonterra Brands Lanka (Pvt) Limited, formerly New Zealand Milk Lanka (Pvt) Ltd -, aims to expand its local milk production by 100 percent over the next five years after a careful assessment of market trends.

According to the annual strategic plans, Fonterra will be targeting to increase its market share as well as their production capacity in coming years. Newly appointed Corporate Affairs Director, Chethiya Sri-Nammuni said the company is working towards achieving set targets.

“We have recently established two new plants to meet the production requirement and have also looked into developing food servicing business where we cater to hotels and restaurants. To maintain and assure the quality of the products, 120 sales representatives will visit and supervise the distribution outlets at least two to three times a week.”

He also said in order to improve the productivity of the staff, overseas training will be provided after considering the best training sources in the region in countries like Singapore or Malaysia.

Fonterra, which propagates CSR within the organization, has established an automated ‘fire supervision system’ to ensure the safety of the employees. And to the rest of the society Fonterra is an activist conducting health campaign projects in areas like Galle and discharging water after purification.
Along with the objective to increase production volumes, there will also be a rise in the discharge to the Waste Water Treatment plant of Fonterra. To accommodate this volume increase, an extension to the plant was recently made at a cost of Rs 10 million.

“Due to the irresponsibility of large scale industries, the environmental pollution has risen rapidly. There is a desperate need to protect the paddy fields from the waste being dumped frequently.” said Pandu Bandaranayake, Deputy Minister of Environment, while opening the expanded plant. Under the new computerized system and new tanks, the plant will now release 150,000 litres of purified water daily operating within the Sri Lankan standards for surface water discharge.

Fonterra, in its expansion to its local milk business will also benefit the dairy farmers since the company provides the highest price for raw milk in the industry, provides technology and financial aid.

Sri-Nammuni told The Sunday Times FT that with Sri Lanka still having only 15 percent local milk production, it is unlikely that local milk businesses will grow in the short term to meet the demand due to its poor quality and high price.

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