Australia, Netherlands to help build Lanka’s dairy industry
September 12, 2011 12:13 pm
Australia and Netherlands are helping Sri Lanka kick start its depleted dairy industry after ending a three decade war by importing 4500 cows and investing over 12 million U.S dollars, the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Monday.
According to the statement, the Cooperatieve Centrale Raiffeisen-Boerenleenbank (Rabobank) of Netherlands and the Export Finance Insurance Corporation (EFIC) of Australia have agreed to provide a loan worth 10.5 million U.S dollars for implementation of phase one of the project.
The total cost of phase one of the project is 12.9 million U.S dollars of which 81 percent of the project cost will be covered from the Rabobank and EFIC financing. The balance 19 percent of the project cost amounting to 2.4 million U.S. dollars will be provided by the Rabobank of Netherlands.
The Finance Ministry noted that arrangements have been made to increase the milk production of Sri Lanka by importing 4,500 dairy animals from Australia and develop farms belonging to National Livestock Development Board (NLDB) at three locations in the country, Xinhua reports.
