Don’t cow down to milk mafia - EDITORIAL

For the past 35 years after Sri Lanka swallowed the globalised capitalist market economic system, one of the worst affected areas has been milk which is vital to provide adequate nutrition mainly for children and for others. Before 1977 Sri   Lanka had a thriving dairy milk industry with the National Milk Board having milk booths at every junction and people were able to get fresh milk at affordable prices. But in a subtle and gradual way trans-national milk companies milked Sri Lanka’s fresh milk industry dry and how they did it is a lesson in crude and crafty neo-colonialism.

While nutritionists on Wednesday made the shocking revelation that up to 1.2 million children go to school without breakfast Sri Lanka continues to be depended on imported powdered milk which in some case comes with various supplements that may not be good for the health. At present about 45,000 million US dollars is known to be spent on the import of powdered milk mainly from Australia and New Zealand. The government had repeatedly promised to take urgent and effective action to revive the local fresh milk industry by setting up small dairy farmer co-operatives and making streamlined arrangements for the transport and sale of this fresh milk. Even recently Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa announced a massive plan to revive Sri Lanka’s dairy industry with the banks giving loans on easy terms for milk co-operatives. But somehow trans-national companies managed to undermine or sideline these fresh milk projects and Sri Lanka continues to be dependent on a powdered milk mafia.

The Government on Wednesday increased import levies on milk powder by 56 per cent, keeping prices high while world prices continue to fall. The Finance Ministry said it had increased the  import levy on milk powder by Rs. 25 to Rs. 88 a kilogramme.

The government had charged as much as
Rs. 125 for a kilogramme of milk powder in a bid to get taxes and help revive the country’s fresh milk industry which is struggling for survival. Economic analysts say it is taxes that keep milk powder prices higher in Sri Lanka than in the rest of the world. The Consumer Affairs Authority initially refused to allow milk powder importers to raise prices. This created a shortage in the market and disrupted supplies. Eventually the CAA allowed a price increase.
People-friendly nutritionists say locally produced fresh milk is twice as nourishing as any imported milk though the trans-national companies carry out promotional campaigns aimed at mothers and enticing them to go for powdered milk. With no Government regulation or monitoring of these promotional campaigns, some powdered milk importers even claim that the child’s brain will not develop properly if that particular brand is not given.

To end this dependence on the powdered milk mafia and the unethical promotion, the Government must act effectively to revive Sri Lanka’s fresh milk industry. United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) partners such as the Jathika Hela Urumaya, the National Freedom Front and the socialist parties have recently been speaking out on issues ranging from casinos to the Seed Act through which an attempt was made to turn our famers into slaves of trans-national companies. We urge these parties and other Ministers to act boldly in insisting that the Government must revive Sri   Lanka’s dairy milk industry through which we will have healthier people and a healthier economy.

Instead of using decreases in world market prices to impose more taxes indirectly on the people, the Government while providing more relief to the people must turn its attention to the fresh milk industry, now treated like cow dung, and turn our country into a land flowing with milk.