Is Cargills-AMUL JV Creating A Dairy Monopoly?

By Amrit Muttukumaru –

I am amazed that a reported ‘Government-to-Government’ Dairy venture between India and Sri Lanka has singled out one company – Cargills (Ceylon) PLC with its ‘Kotmale’ and ‘Cargills Magic’  brands to effectively sound the death knell for other private sector brands which include ‘Elephant House’, ‘Ambewela’, ‘Rich Life’ and ‘Pelwatte’ not to mention the state owned ‘Highland’ brand. As it is even now Cargills with over 500 ‘Food City’ outlets has the capacity to undermine competing brands.

The ‘Daily FT’ (13 October 2023) as usual without any critical analysis has its front page news item  “Cargills (Ceylon) Plc to hold 49% stake in Indo-Lanka dairy venture” embellished with a picture after the signing of the ‘agreement’ in the presence of also President Ranil Wickremesinghe and India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar stating:

Questions that arise include:

1) Why is India’s ‘AMUL’ (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?

2) Why is a ‘Government-to-Government’ venture not dealing with the state owned ‘Milco (Private) Limited’ and the ‘National Livestock Development Board’ (NLDB) to develop the dairy industry as a whole to give a ‘level playing field’ to all ‘players’?

3) Is this a precursor to other questionable involvement with India? 

4) What are the implications to local livestock if the project involves imports from India?

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 Ranil Wickremesinghe?

Controversy

Cargills (Ceylon) PLC is not without controversy. This includes:

1) The purported Police inquiry on the vicious attack on an alleged female ‘shoplifter’ by ‘Food City’ staff.  Video of Cargills staff brutally assaulting female goes viral. After this incident went viral, there is now ‘radio silence’ like most things in this country. Political influence?

2) Why does ‘Cargills Bank’ continue to be a ‘private’ entity more than 10 years after it obtained its CBSL license? Does it relate to flouting with impunity statutory laws applicable to ‘single party’ ownership of commercial banks? Recently appointed SEC Chairman, Faizal Salieh was an ‘independent’ board director of Cargills Bank from April 2015 to August 2022. Could he throw some light on this?

3) In the context of Cargills being a PLC (Publicly owned) company, companies owned by the wife of Ranjit Page supply ‘Food City’ outlets with a range of bakery and pastry products notwithstanding the appalling ‘conflict of interest’. Some ready-to-eat items have a monopoly. Unlike in the case of other suppliers, RETURNS are not accepted. I also understand that payment is FAST TRACKED for her companies. 

4) Why has Ranjit Page (nothing gets past him at Cargills) sent a‘WhatsApp’ message to ‘Food City’ managers instructing them  below my PICTURE taken from a truncated version of my ‘Colombo Telegraph’ article “Ranil’s Mythical Access To Global Finance & Political Longevity Is Media Creation”:

“Please inform your Executive team this person not engage our staff and not to help.” 

(no reason given)

Staff at ‘Food City’ 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!

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