Ambewela to invest Rs 1 bn in dairy plant

Sri Lanka: Ambewela Products will invest Rs. one billion to set up a modern dairy plant which will be one of a kind in South Asia.

This plant has a capacity to produce 9.6 million litres of milk and milk based products, thus easing the dependence Sri Lanka currently has on imported full cream milk powder.

Director Finance and Administration, Ambewela Farms, Ranjit Attygalle said the dairy plant is scheduled to commence operations in December. “This initiative was formed with a long term vision to improve the dairy industry in Sri Lanka,” he said.

With the new plant, Ambewela Farms are ready to take a giant leap forward by giving consumers a wide variety of milk packs and dairy products such as Cheese and Yoghurt, manufactured up to the highest international standards.

Lanka Milk Foods and its subsidiaries, Lanka Dairies Limited, Ambewela and Pattipola Farms and Ambewela Products Limited are moving in the right direction by providing Sri Lankan consumers with the best quality milk in the Lankan dairy industry.

Ambewela Products will also introduce two new flavours, Kulfi and Faluda to the local market. Director Marketing, Lal Saranapala said the dairy industry in Sri Lanka is in its infancy.

“Thus, the country cannot continue to rely on importing full cream milk powder when the prices keep on escalating. Sri Lanka’s requirement of liquid milk is around 1 billion litres per year, and currently about 60,000 MTs of milk powder is imported per annum which is 80 per cent of our requirement, draining valuable foreign exchange from our country,” he said.

“Our goal is to contribute to improve the dairy industry in the country in no small measure and we have made this huge investment as patriotic corporate citizens in order to commit to the improvement of the national dairy industry,” he added.

In 2001 Lanka Milk Foods leased out the Ambewela and Pattipola Dairy Farms and over the last seven years have shown vast improvements in the quality of milk, which is now manufactured up to the best standards in Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The yield of milk per cow has increased by 50 per cent over this period.

These significant achievements have been recognised by the Department of Agriculture.