President calls for increased milk production

President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Sunday directed authorities in the livestock development and dairy product industry to implement a suitable program for promoting the use of organic dairy products, with an emphasis to produce nutritionally superior liquid milk for the country.

The President made these comments while on a visit to the Polonnaruwa milk factory of Milco Ltd., to inspect its activities.

The President also instructed officials to expand its operations to increase liquid milk production, pointing out that the country imports more than 75, 000 metric tonnes of milk powder annually, for which it pays round 400 million US dollars.

If the country could save such huge sums of money from going to foreign countries, it could be used for development activities, said the President.He also requested officials to work with more dedication by providing healthy dairy products to the public against those genetically engineered livestock products which are available in the market.