Annual turnover at Milco, Sri Lanka’s top milk producer, is around Rs 42 billion for the year 2008/09 and the company is contributing Rs 15 billion to the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), according to Upali Attanayake , CEO, Milco (Pvt) Ltd, speaking when he addressed the ‘Highland’ Dealer Convention in Colombo recently.
Wickrama Enterprises, Colombo; Prasanna Traders Badulla; Seven Hills, Colombo; Ranweli Traders, Kandy and Sisira Green House, Galle were adjudged the best five dealers among the other award winners. Mr Attanayake said Milco has come a long way since its inception 53 years and now deals with around 45,000 dairy farmers and pays out Rs 2 billion per annum – a great service to the dairy industry in Sri Lanka and for the dairy farmer families, making their efforts an economic and social venture with national importance.
He paid tribute to the dealers saying that they are the backbone of this venture.
R.M.P.B.Ratnayake, Minister of Livestock Development, was full of praise over the steady development of Milco and its achievements. While conceding that there was a time when Milco products were of poor quality as the milk power did not properly dissolve, he said they were purchased and used to mix with animal food.
He showed his displeasure over certain housewives shopping in supermarkets to make a quick purchase of some multinational milk power brand, ignoring the importance of buying local products. He said that Milco products is quality-wise unmatched against any international brands and they can compete even better than any international brands.
He was also critical over certain advertising strategies adopted by certain multinational milk powder distributors and said that some said that consuming certain brands of milk food could straighten the back (Konda Kelin Karaganna Puluwan). |
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