The Sri Lankan Government has ordered the state-owned milk company Milco to buy up all unsold milk from farmers.
Farmers recently held demonstrations, highlighting their inability to sell fresh milk in the Sri Lankan market by spilling 12,000 litres on the streets of Hatton.
The popularity of imported milk powder in Sri Lanka have damaged sales of fresh milk. However, the government has fought back by ordering Milco to purchase unsold milk and boost national self-sufficiency.
"We are committed to encourage dairy farmers in this country to produce milk," Milco's chairman Sunil Wickramasinghe told the BBC in Colombo. "And we are committed to buy that milk."
The government has also raised taxes on imported milk powder by 25%, in an attempt to force people to buy locally produced fresh milk.
"We spend nearly $400m [per year] to import the milk in foreign exchange," says Mr Wickramasinghe. "On the other side, technically we can produce all the milk that we require in this country, so why not?"
Sri Lanka buys up local milk to spare the farmers' tears - BBC (10 May 2012)
Also see our earlier posts:
Chinese lanterns flood Sri Lankan markets for Vesak (05 May 2012)
‘Banning its roti and eating it too’ (11 Jan 2012)
SL Prime Minister calls for wheat and fruit import ban (07 Dec 2011)
Food for thought (04 Nov 2010)
