By Rathindra Kuruwita
The price of Highland milk powder would increase from today (05), Chairman of Milco Private Ltd., Renuka Perera, told the media, in Colombo, yesterday.
“From 05 October, the price of a packet of 400-gram milk powder will be Rs. 950. It was Rs. 850 earlier. The new price of a packet of one kilo milk powder will be Rs. 2350. It was Rs. 2120, earlier,” he said.
Perera said that dairy farmers supply Milco with less milk. They also insist that the cost of production has increased drastically.
“They say that the cost of feed has increased a lot and that milch cows produce less milk. They also have to transport milk to our collection centres,” he said.
The Milco Chairman added that the overheads of the company have also risen greatly in recent months. The price of fuel, electricity and other goods that are needed to produce milk powder has increased by a great deal. Taxes, too, have risen. In fact, we increased the price of all other products, in September. We didn’t increase the price of milk powder thinking about our children. However, the costs have increased so much and we had to increase prices. However, despite these increases, we are still the cheapest in the market,” he said.