Sri Lanka may seem an odd place for New Zealand to have a strong presence but, for almost 40 years Kiwi dairy products and, more recently, Kiwi dairy farming expertise has been sent to the shores of the 21 million-strong island nation.
Fonterra has been supporting the development of Sri Lanka's local dairy industry for a number of years - a move Raglan dairy farmer, Ross Wallis, has seen the benefits of.
Wallis says this support will "radically change lives" of Sri Lankan dairy farming families, increasing milk collection, improving milk quality and lifting incomes.
It also helps Fonterra's business in Sri Lanka as it provides 35,000 litres of fresh milk collected each day and turned into products it makes locally, such as yoghurt, UHT milk and curd.
Wallis, who with wife Shayney has just returned from a visit to Sri Lanka, runs a herd of 295 cows on 300 acres in Raglan.
"I first went there about three years ago with Fonterra (Wallis is a member of the company's Shareholders' Council) and most farmers have only two or three cows which they milk by hand for their families and sell the rest.
"I spoke to a couple of local farmers who had herds of up to 17 cows but those are considered big," he says.
Sri Lankans are also enthusiastic drinkers of the company's various products, consuming an equivalent 2.4 billion glasses of milk last year. The vast majority of this is sold as milk powder which comes from Fonterra's Te Rapa dairy factory in the Waikato.
The Anchor brand is the country's biggest-selling full cream milk powder.
Wallis' family has a long history of dairy farming - but he almost didn't continue.
His property - it produces a million litres of milk annually - was originally farmed by his father on land in his family for more than 160 years.
He has also spent 10 years on missionary work in Australia, south-east Asia and the United States - continuing a tradition first begun by his great-great- great- grandfather the Rev James Wallis, a Wesleyan missionary who arrived in New Zealand in 1836 and was the first European to buy land in the Raglan area.
Wallis said: "I hated milking cows when I was growing up. For me helping others has always been a drive and a passion."
Which is why, after leaving university, Wallis worked with young people in Australia, taking them on third world experiences in Asia where they helped at schools and orphanages. Later in the United States, he organised youth events at cities across the country.
It was while overseas other family roots beckoned: "Dad needed a hand running the farm so I came home to help out. That was 17 years ago and I ended up managing the farm and buying it off him in 2004 - I realised it was a good place to live and to bring up the kids."
It is also close to his brother who runs a 400-acre farm nearby, part of the original 800 acres bought by their great-great- great- grandfather.
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