Dairy News

Hint of cow milk price hike for second time in two months

Tuesday, 07/03/2017

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/hint-of-cow-milk-price-hike-for-second-time-in-two-months/articleshow/57503274.cms

PUNE: The retail price of cow milk pouches is likely to go up by Rs 2 per litre from next week — the second upward revision of prices in two months.

The cow milk price was earlier increased in January from Rs 40 to Rs 42 per litre. The cooperative and private dairies in the state supplying cow milk in the retail market have now proposed another revision citing various reasons, including less production of milk and increased expenses.

The dairies held a meeting recently in Pune, in which a hike in the selling prices of cow and buffalo milk was proposed unanimously. A proposal has also been tabled to increase the price of buffalo milk by Rs2.

Vinayak Patil of a joint action committee of the federation of cooperative and private dairies said the next meeting of the dairies had been scheduled on March 10 to take a final call on the price hike. If dairies settle down on a unanimous decision, the revised prices will come into effect from March 11, he said.

Patil accepted that milk prices were undergoing constant revision because of lesser production of milk, increased expenses and rise in the prices of fodder. He said, "The retail market of milk has been going through a rough period and dairies have been facing a tough challenge to maintain daily business. The production has dropped because of two years of drought. Farmers are still not opting for milk production because of less availability of fodder and low returns. Many sold their cattle during the drought. Those who are producing milk prefer to sell it to the milk powder plants, who offer better prices than the retail market," Patil said.

He added dairies were encouraging farmers to take up milk production and were assuring better returns. To deal with the situation, dairies have also proposed to increase the purchase price (purchase of milk from farmers/milk producers) by Re 1 from the existing Rs25 per litre. The government's procurement price for cow milk is Rs22 per litre, which cooperative and private dairies are set to increase to Rs26.

"We have proposed an increase of Rs4 return to milk producers over the government's rate, hoping that more milk producers will provide us milk," a dairy owner said.