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CAA Chief says will not allow milk price increase

27 Feb 2012 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) yesterday (27) said that the request for a price increase on milk powder had only reached them last Friday (24) and it will deliver its decision within 30 days as per the law.

CAA Chairman Rumy Marzook re-iterated that the authority does not respond to threats and would not let milk powder importers give them time frames for a decision to be made and said he would give them his decision in due course.

Milk powder importers had on Friday threatened to stop imports unless the CAA permits them to increase the price of a 450 gram packet of milk powder by Rs.15 the following day (25). Addressing a news briefing in Colombo, CEO of the Maliban Group Lukshman Weerasuriya said that all six milk powder importers were presently incurring a loss of Rs. 37 for every kilogram of milk powder they sell in the local market due to the devaluation of the rupee and increase of the US dollar. He said that the need to increase the price of milk powder had nothing to do with the global price of milk powder or overheads but solely on these two factors.

He said that although they could have got on the bandwagon blaming the recent fuel price hike for the increase in milk prices they were not going to do so but had told the public and the CAA the real situation and had only requested a minimum increase of Rs. 15.00 for a 450 gram packet of milk only because they cannot continue in this trade by incurring daily losses.

Asked to comment on the stance taken by the CAA on the issue, Nestle’s CEO Asoka Bandara told Daily Mirror yesterday that they were ready to hold talks with the CAA Chairman and were hoping that they could come to some kind of compromise. “It is true that we cannot continue engage in producing milk powder if this situation continues. However, we will try our best to solve the problem by coming to a compromise as we do not want to put the consumer in difficulty by suspending imports,” Mr. Bandara said. (Sandun A. Jayasekera)

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CAA Chief says will not allow milk price increase

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