The chairman of the state-owned Milco Company has stated that he suspects ‘multinational companies’ could be behind strikes, which have contributed to a severe shortage of milk powder in Sri Lanka.
The price of milk powder, is controlled by the government’s Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA), despite requests from milk powder companies to increase the prices, reported ColomboPage. This has led to reportedly led to companies reducing their production in order to minimise losses.
The situation has been compounded by a strike by Milco staff, to which Milco chairman Sunil Wickramasinghe commented,
“When we took over the management of the company it was full of corruption and misdeeds; but we took it along the correct path by instilling discipline in the staff. I wonder whether multi-national companies could be behind this strike”
Last year, the government raised taxes on imported milk powder by 25% and vowed to buy up all unsold milk from farmers, in a bid to support local rural farmers, following protests.
The government used the state-owned Milco to subsequently buy any unsold milk.
See our earlier post:
Government buys up local milk (10 May 2012)
Also see:
Mahinda and Basil decide to expand fertiliser subsidies (21 May 2012)
Chinese lanterns flood Sri Lankan markets for Vesak (05 May 2012)
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