{"id":234345,"date":"2023-10-19T01:25:53","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T19:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=234345"},"modified":"2023-10-26T15:12:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-26T09:42:35","slug":"is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Cargills-AMUL JV Creating A Dairy Monopoly?"},"content":{"rendered":"

By <\/b>Amrit Muttukumaru<\/a> –<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Amrit Muttukumaru<\/p><\/div>\n

I am amazed that a reported \u2018Government-to-Government\u2019 Dairy venture between India and Sri Lanka has singled out one company – Cargills (Ceylon) PLC with its \u2018Kotmale\u2019 and \u2018Cargills Magic\u2019\u00a0 <\/span>brands to effectively <\/span>sound the death knell for other private sector brands which include \u2018Elephant House\u2019, \u2018Ambewela\u2019, \u2018Rich Life\u2019 and \u2018Pelwatte\u2019 not to mention the state owned \u2018Highland\u2019 brand. As it is even now Cargills with over 500 \u2018Food City\u2019 outlets has the capacity to undermine competing brands.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u2018Daily FT\u2019 (13 October 2023) as usual without any critical analysis has its front page news item\u00a0 <\/span>\u201cCargills (Ceylon) Plc to hold 49% stake in Indo-Lanka dairy venture<\/a><\/span>\u201d <\/span>embellished with a picture after the signing of the \u2018agreement\u2019 in the presence of also President <\/span>Ranil Wickremesinghe and India’s External Affairs Minister Dr.\u00a0S.\u00a0Jaishankar stating:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Cargills (Ceylon) Plc Deputy Chairman\/CEO\u00a0Ranjit Page (right) holding the copy of the agreement signed involving Indian National Dairy Development Board, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation of India (Amul), on Wednesday in the presence of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry and the visiting India\u2019s External Affairs\u00a0 Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar<\/p><\/div>\n

Questions that arise include<\/b><\/span>:<\/b><\/p>\n

1) Why is India\u2019s \u2018AMUL\u2019 (The Taste of India) one of the largest dairy companies in the world with a global footprint with heavy advertising also on CNN interested in a relatively insignificant Sri Lanka market?<\/p>\n

2) Why is a <\/span>\u2018Government-to-Government\u2019 venture not dealing with the state owned <\/span>\u2018Milco (Private) Limited\u2019 and the \u2018National Livestock Development Board\u2019 (NLDB) to develop the dairy industry as a whole to give a \u2018level playing field\u2019\u00a0to all \u2018players\u2019?<\/span><\/p>\n

3) Is this a precursor to other questionable involvement with India?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4) What are the implications to local livestock if the project involves imports from India?<\/p>\n

5) What does it say about Sri Lankan dairy companies that have not taken issue on this matter? Are they afraid of upsetting unelected President <\/span>Ranil Wickremesinghe?<\/p>\n

Controversy<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Cargills (Ceylon) PLC is not without controversy. This includes:<\/p>\n

1) The purported Police inquiry on the vicious attack on an alleged female \u2018shoplifter\u2019 by \u2018Food City\u2019 staff. \u00a0<\/span>Video of Cargills staff brutally assaulting female goes viral<\/span><\/a><\/span>. After this incident went viral, there is now \u2018radio silence\u2019 like most things in this country. Political influence?<\/p>\n

2)<\/span> Why does \u2018Cargills Bank\u2019 continue to be a \u2018private\u2019 entity more than 10 years after it obtained its CBSL license? Does it relate to <\/span>flouting with impunity statutory laws applicable to \u2018single party\u2019 ownership of commercial banks? Recently appointed SEC Chairman, <\/span>Faizal Salieh was an \u2018independent\u2019 board director of Cargills Bank from April 2015 to August 2022. Could he throw some light on this?<\/span><\/p>\n

3) In the context of Cargills being a PLC (Publicly owned) company, companies owned by <\/b>the wife of Ranjit Page supply \u2018Food City\u2019 outlets with a range of bakery and pastry products notwithstanding the appalling \u2018conflict of interest\u2019. Some ready-to-eat items have a monopoly. <\/span>Unlike in the case of other suppliers, RETURNS <\/b>are not accepted. I also understand that payment is FAST TRACKED for her companies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4) Why has <\/span>Ranjit Page (nothing gets past him at Cargills) sent a\u2018WhatsApp\u2019 message to \u2018Food City\u2019 managers instructing them\u00a0 <\/span>below my PICTURE taken from a truncated version of my \u2018Colombo Telegraph\u2019 article \u201cRanil\u2019s Mythical Access To Global Finance & Political Longevity Is Media Creation<\/a><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>:<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease inform your Executive team this person not engage our staff and not to help.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

(no reason given)<\/p>\n

Staff at \u2018Food City\u2019 outlets close to my residence who were previously cordial are so SCARED of Ranjit Page due to the CCTV that they now literally RUN AWAY when they see me!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[…]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":234347,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,46,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-234345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-constitutional-reforms","category-editorial"],"yoast_head":"\nIs Cargills-AMUL JV Creating A Dairy Monopoly? - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Is Cargills-AMUL JV Creating A Dairy Monopoly? - Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[…]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Colombo Telegraph\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-10-18T19:55:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-10-26T09:42:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Cargills-Ceylon-Plc-Amul-India-Ranil-Jaishankar-Ali-Sabry.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"452\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Amrit Muttukumaru\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Amrit Muttukumaru\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/\",\"name\":\"Is Cargills-AMUL JV Creating A Dairy Monopoly? - Colombo Telegraph\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Cargills-Ceylon-Plc-Amul-India-Ranil-Jaishankar-Ali-Sabry.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-10-18T19:55:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-10-26T09:42:35+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/#\/schema\/person\/80cec533b28ef410b73e728fa17ef9b0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/is-cargills-amul-jv-creating-a-dairy-monopoly\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Cargills-Ceylon-Plc-Amul-India-Ranil-Jaishankar-Ali-Sabry.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Cargills-Ceylon-Plc-Amul-India-Ranil-Jaishankar-Ali-Sabry.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":452,\"caption\":\"Cargills (Ceylon) Plc Deputy Chairman\/CEO\u00a0Ranjit Page (right) holding the copy of the agreement signed involving Indian National Dairy Development Board, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation of India (Amul), on Wednesday in the presence of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry and the visiting India\u2019s External Affairs\u00a0 Minister Dr. S. 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