Company Announcement
Wellard wishes to confirm six points with respect to its dairy heifer program supplying cattle to the Government of Sri Lanka.
- There was a successful pilot program in Sri Lanka in 2013 which gave all parties the confidence that the main program could be run successfully
- Wellard alerted the general public on 18 March 2018 that it was experiencing some challenges in Sri Lanka (see press release: http://wellard.com.au/wellard-to-make-changes-to-sri-lanka-dairy-program/)
- This was despite the benefits that the program was achieving and the provision of technical support by Wellard, which was supposed to end six months after the heifers were delivered to the Federal Government of Sri Lanka but continues to this day
- Efforts to resolve the current issue have been ongoing for some time, and are continuing
- Wellard is in negotiations with the Government of Sri Lanka to make changes to the program to prevent a reoccurrence of these issues for any future shipments
- No cattle have been shipped since November 2017 and no more cattle will be shipped until changes to the farm selection criteria have been agreed, which is unlikely to occur this year
- The animals provided to Sri Lanka were healthy and free of disease. Relevant health certificates, provided by the Government veterinarians from Sri Lanka and Australia before the heifers were exported, can be viewed by clicking on this link.
Media
FTI Consulting, Cameron Morse
Phone: + 61 8 9321 8533
Mobile: + 61 (0) 433 886 871