Fonterra launches innovative technology at Doluwa chilling centre to increase milk quality

Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka Managing Director Leon Clement ceremoniously opening the Fonterra Milk Chilling Centre in Doluwa

One of the dairy farmers of the Doluwa area lighting the traditional oil lamp as part of the ceremonious opening the Fonterra Milk Chilling Centre in Doluwa

Coordinating Secretary to the Deputy Minister of Mahaweli Development and Environment (left) and Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka Managing Director Leon Clement (2nd left) pouring milk into the rapid chilling system to mark the ceremonious opening the Fonterra Milk Chilling Centre in Doluwa

At the recent opening of its new milk chilling centre in Doluwa, Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka unveiled new rapid chilling technology that will help improve milk quality across the region.

The new technology is the first of its kind in Sri Lanka, and allows Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka to chill milk collected from local dairy farmers to four degrees Celsius in a matter of seconds. This means the dairy co-operative is able to make sure the milk is of the highest quality.

Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka Managing Director Leon Clement said that Fonterra Brands Sri Lanka is committed to building a stronger dairy industry in Sri Lanka and introducing new innovative technology like this is vital towards this development. 

“As a co-operative, we are focused on sharing our dairy expertise to produce more high quality milk locally, and we believe the opening of this new milk chilling centre using this new rapid chilling technology will help the industry take another step forward.

“Sri Lanka has a hot climate, so getting the milk to the right temperature can be a challenge. However, this new technology is a cost-effective and safe way of chilling milk closer to the rural dairy farmers who supply it,” said Clement. The milk chilling centre in Doluwa will allow Fonterra to collect an additional 60,000 litres of fresh local milk every month from nearby farmer families for its Anchor and Anchor Newdale product ranges. 

Lalith Ananda, a dairy farmer in the Doluwa area said that two things mainly affect Sri Lankan dairy farmers and the quality of milk they supply – challenges in technology and not having a proper feeding system for their cows.

“Fonterra’s dairy farming experts and Supplier Relations Officers (SROs) have been very forthcoming and flexible in advising and working with us on improvements we can make on farm to enhance the quality of our milk.

“As such, working with Fonterra is truly a win-win situation. We are guaranteed a steady income with the higher price we receive, and supply the company high quality milk.”

The unveiling of the rapid chilling technology follows on from the pilot program of Fonterra’s award-winning Milk Fingerprinting technology launched at its Kiriwaththuduwa milk chilling centre, which reduces the time it takes to test the quality of the milk collected from farmers.

Using Infra-Red light analysis and sophisticated computing, it measures and tracks the quality of each farmer’s milk so that only milk that meets all food safety and quality standards is collected and processed. Clement said: “Being able to test milk on farm and in only a few seconds ensures that we collect only the best milk from local farmers. “The precision and speed of the testing method also increases our ability to work with farmers, by giving them all the information they need about the quality levels of their milk immediately,” said Clement.

The technology behind Fonterra’s Milk Fingerprinting was developed at the Fonterra Research and Development Centre in New Zealand, where the co-operative invests more than NZ$ 90 million annually into R&D. 

The innovative diagnostic test won the Innovation Excellence in Research Award at New Zealand’s Innovators Awards in October.