Dairy Supply Not Affected by Strike

The strike in the Industrial Distric Management Ltd (IDM) in Balaju has not yet hit the supply of milk to the valley.

"The total requirement of DDC at Lainchour is about 3000-4000 litres daily," said marketing operation officer of DDC, Balkanta Adhikari, adding that as yet there has been no difficulty in the supply of raw milk to the corporation and it is getting adequate raw milk for the production of cheese, butter, paneer and ice-cream etc. "The daily business of DDC is about Rs 1,00,000 per day," he said.

Supply has been able to meet consumers' demand, which can be taken as a positive aspect of DDCs all over the valley.

According to Adhikari, DDC has managed to bring the required raw milk from IDM Balaju and even the dealers, distributors, franchise, retailors get delivery at the right time. He informed that the milk is transported at night.

According to the distributors' price monitor, ghee polypack one litre costs Rs 370, which is the inter project price, including VAT of Rs 42.57; butter block per kg at Rs 355; processed cheese per 200 gm is Rs 72; paneer per kg costs Rs 250; fresh cream with 60 per cent fat per litre costs Rs 238 and yoghurt per 1.5 litre costs Rs 92.

Administration officer Bishnu Thapa said, "Prices of dairy products have not changed," and added that there is enough circulaton of dairy items in the market.

However, there is slight increase in the consumer price by an average of 15-20 per cent. The increase is from 5-10 per cent in departmental stores and 10-15 per cent increment in retailer shops. Despite the price difference, consumers have to pay the same amount even if they buy the products from any of these sources. Apart from it, the VAT amount is also different for these different sources.

"Since it is government undertaking there has never been any kind of unnecessary price hike,"

Thapa said.