Fonterra ups local milk collection by 22% to 8.2 m litres

Monday, 21 January 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Fonterra yesterday announced a 22% increase in local milk collection in 2012, versus the previous year.

The increase saw Fonterra collect 8.2 million litres of locally produced milk from a network of around 4,000 Sri Lankan dairy farmers across five districts – a new collection record for the company.

Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka Managing Director Leon Clement said that Fonterra has been collecting fresh milk in Sri Lanka for more than 15 years.

“We are firmly committed to the local dairy industry and have been playing an important role in helping farmers increase their skills in the areas of milk production, quality and sustainability for more than a decade.

“We began our farmer-development program in 1997 and today provide around 4,000 farmers with training, advice and support to help them produce top quality milk. As a result, farmers in our program improved their production by an average of 10 per cent over this 12 month period. We also expanded our farmer development program to include around 200 more farmers in 2012.”

Clement added that the milk collected by Fonterra is processed into fresh dairy products, under the Anchor Newdale brand, at Fonterra’s manufacturing site in Biyagama.

“The extra 1.5 million litres we collected last year was the equivalent to 7.5 million glasses – and it all went into developing high quality fresh dairy products, under our Anchor Newdale range.

“Sri Lankans are increasingly looking for high quality fresh milk and other fresh dairy formats that use local milk. We are committed to investing further in the dairy sector to help develop Sri Lankan dairying capabilities and skills to support this growing demand.”

Clement also said that milk is gold standard nutrition and an important part of a balanced diet.

“Fonterra has been providing dairy nutrition to Sri Lankans for more than 35 years. We want to continue working alongside the Government and the industry to help ensure that Sri Lankans continue to have access to high quality dairy nutrition, everyday,” he added.