The 2027 Budget allocates Rs 1.8 billion to import high-quality breeding stock and a further Rs 3 billion to complete a milk processing factory that has been under construction since 2015.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake set out the livestock measures in Thursday’s Budget speech, framing them as an effort to strengthen domestic food production, cut import dependence and open export markets, NewsFirst reported.

Breeding farms

The Rs 1.8 billion is directed to specialised breeding farms run by the National Livestock Development Board, covering:

The government is also exploring a dedicated economic zone centred on the Western and North Western Provinces for the export of chicken and value-added poultry products.

The Badalgama plant

The new Milco milk processing factory at Badalgama receives another Rs 3 billion allocation for 2027. Construction began in 2015 and was originally due to finish in 2019. NewsFirst reports that years of delay produced machinery damage, rehabilitation costs, rising equipment prices and contractor claims, and describes the project as incomplete despite millions already spent. The new allocation is intended to finish the plant and bring it into operation.

Smallholder support

An additional Rs 300 million, on top of an existing Rs 200 million, is allocated for concessions to goat farming projects in districts including Puttalam, Mannar and Batticaloa.

Sourcing note

This article rests on a single verified newsroom. The Daily Mirror’s sector-by-sector Budget breakdown, which corroborated the plantation, agriculture, fisheries and rail allocations published alongside this report, carries no livestock line, and no other verified outlet had filed on the livestock proposals at the time of writing.

Not reported

The filing does not say how much of the original Milco budget has already been spent, what the plant’s capacity will be, whether the contractor claims have been settled, or whether the poultry economic zone has been approved or remains under consideration.