New Milco head finds old faults, makes promises

The newly- appointed chairman of the stateowned milk products manufacturing company, Milco Private Limited, has blamed the former administration for getting its priorities mixed up.

New ch a i r man Renuka Perera, told the Sunday Times that ice cream, butter and yogurt, were being produced instead of fresh milk and other dairy products.

The accusation came hours after former chairman Lasantha Wickramasinghe was suddenly removed. Mr Wickramasinghe was later appointed chairman of Ceylon Fer t i l i s e r Company Ltd.

Mr Perera, was earlier last week appointed to head Litro Gas, but could not take up the appointment. Incumbent Theshara Jayasinghe was restored to the job at Litro Gas.

Mr Perera said he understood that the Milco administration had operated the company as a business instead of prioritising the needs of the people.

He said Milco had not given priority to produce fresh milk and packaged milk powder.

“People complain that there is no fresh milk and powdered milk, yet the administration, knowing the needs of the people, have prioritised production of yogurt, butter, and ice cream,” he said.

The production of sterilised, flavoured milk, too, had drastically dropped, he said.

He said that there are also allegations against the former administration for purchasing lower volumes of fresh milk.

He added that the company had earlier directly purchased a litre of milk for Rs 92 and bought bulk from private milk suppliers (middlemen) at Rs 120 per litre.

Mr Perera said the President has given a mandate to the National Livestock Development Board to stop imports of milk and increase local production.

Mr Perera said he aims to meet 50% of the local fresh milk demand by year end.

He also said that he had also learnt that the milk supply had dropped as the artificial insemination of cows had fallen behind due to the coronavirus pandemic.

He said he has plans to help farmers increase the breeding of cows.

Meanwhile, the former chairman of Milco, Mr Wickramasinghe, responding to the allegations, said that fresh milk production had dropped during the past three months due to the pandemic.

He said that the artificial insemination of cows carried out by provincial veterinary officers stopped due to the viral pandemic and resulting travel restrictions. As a result, the livestock ministry was unable to restore production.

“The milk supply was reduced. If we produced fresh milk, we would only be able to make fresh milk from the quantities available. If we did that, private dairy producers might gain the monopoly of the market and increase the price of butter, ice cream, and yogurt,’’ he said.

He admitted that Milco needs to pay more and buy fresh milk from collectors who supply to private competitors. This would help keep Milco products in the market, while disrupting the private dairy product producers from gaining a monopoly.

Mr Wickramasinghe claimed that as the Livestock Ministry had failed in its goal of increasing milk producing cows, allegations were directed towards him by groups of unionists backed by a politician.