Dutch dairy mission completes successful visit to Sri Lanka

Investment Promotion and Highways Deputy Minister Eran Wickramaratne who was the Chief Guest at the seminar held by the visiting Dutch dairy delegation. Here Wickramaratne with Head of the delegation and Director of International Agribusiness at the Ministry of Economic Affairs Sara Knijff (left) and Netherlands Ambassador Lovis W.M.Piet 

A trade delegation representing the dairy sector in the Netherlands visited Sri Lanka on 8 and 9 June. 

The delegation included companies specialising in the storage of feed, processing and cooling equipment, technology consultation, renewable energy, agricultural machinery, finance and vocational training and education. Sara Knijff, the Director of International Agribusiness at the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the Netherlands led the delegation. 

Following a field visit to dairy establishments in the Gampaha and Kurunegala districts, the delegation participated in a trade seminar and matchmaking session followed by a networking dinner for almost 100 guests at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel.

Highways and Investment Promotion Deputy Minister Eran Wickramaratne was the chief guest at the seminar. During his speech, the deputy minister highlighted the importance of adopting a multidisciplinary approach to deal with the challenges in the dairy sector of Sri Lanka. 

He further emphasised the need for the development of the dairy sector in order to ensure food security of the nation while maximising land use. He stated that more efficiency in the sector would require an increase in farm size. The Government would need to develop appropriate policies to achieve this objective while also dealing with the employment effects.

Knijff emphasised the need to develop the sector in a comprehensive way. A focus on one isolated factor was doomed to fail. Dairy production, from grass to glass, is a complex chain of activities that needs an integrated approach. The Dutch experience could provide a very useful and relevant input for the Sri Lankan dairy sector, Knijff said. Many Dutch farms are still family-based and middle-sized and farmers still remember the days that milkcans were collected daily by the local processing company or cooperative.

Louis Piët, the Dutch ambassador, emphasised the longstanding relations between the two countries in the sector. Dairy cooperation goes back some 40 years and many Sri Lankan professionals have been trained in the Netherlands. This provides a solid basis for renewed engagement.

The matchmaking session, organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, was an enormous success. The members of the mission and the participating Sri Lankan companies had well over 80 one-on-one meetings. These meetings provided all companies with the opportunity to quickly find out if there were future cooperation possibilities.

During this mission, Knijff and other Dutch Government officials also had a meeting with the Secretary and senior officials of the Ministry of Irrigation and Agriculture, where several bilateral matters pertaining to the agriculture sector of the two countries were discussed.

“This visit should result in long-term business activities which will contribute towards economic development in Sri Lanka and the Netherlands,” Piët said prior to the mission. 

Following the mission, all the members of the contingent expressed their happiness with their visit to Sri Lanka and several participants mentioned that they saw very good possibilities for joining forces with Sri Lankan companies or knowledge institutes in the dairy sector. Many of them promised to return to Sri Lanka and some even said that they would bring their families.

Sri Lanka and the Netherlands have a rich history of working together in the dairy sector. In the past the focus was on development cooperation and knowledge exchange. Today the Dutch focus is on building and strengthening economic ties. This focus is perfectly reflected in the embassy’s slogan: Sri Lanka – the Netherlands; Old Friends – New Trends. For more information on the visit contact the Embassy at [email protected].