'Milko can produce 70,000 litres in eight hrs'

Parliament reporters

Livestock and Rural Community Development Minister Arumugam Thondaman said in Parliament yesterday that Milko is now in the position of processing 70,000 litres of milk per eight hour shift.

Thondaman was participating at the third reading of budget 2012. The minister said that Milko's VHT (Ultra High Temperature) milk processing plant in multiple sizes would be able to expand the production as the demand for the new product expands in the market.

Promotion of liquid milk consumption is a basic pledge in the Mahinda Chintana policy document and it is supported by establishing milk sales outlets throughout the country, he said.

The dairy village programme which was started in 2004 is being continued with much success.

The subsidy component under this has been increased to Rs 35,000 per beneficiary.

"Shortage of quality breeding cattle is a drawback to the dairy sector development and we are in need of good quality cows to produce more and more milk to achieve self reliance in dairy products. Therefore, all steps have been taken to import dairy heifers to fulfill the requirement at least upto some extent and the first batch of 500 heifers will reach our farms in March next year. "We have also planned to develop the NLDB farms with the help of local and foreign investors.

"We will not only use these investments for NLDB farm development but also to develop clusters of commercial dairy farms around these farms, so that the benefits of state farms development is spread to the wider farming community' he said.