Shortage of Dairy Products Hits Kathmandu DDC Increases Milk Price

With the Teej celebrations in full swing, Kathmandu has been facing shortage of various milk products like ghee, butter, curds and Panir for the last few days. The problem surfaced after dairy farmers reduced supplies to dairy companies.

According to sources, dairy farmers sell only 20 percent of the milk produced by them during festivals like Teej.

Ajab Lal Yadav, general manager of Dairy Development Corporation (DDC), which caters to more than 50 percent of total dairy demand in the capital, said most of the farmers use the milk produced to make ghee, curd or Khuwa for their own consumption or to make sweet delicacies during festive seasons.

While the milk supply declines, demand of dairy products generally soars by around 20 times on such occasions, creating scarcity of all dairy products.

"We have been trying to keep the situation under control by using milk powder and stored fresh milk to increase our productions," Yadav said, adding, "Maybe distribution channels are not working effectively."

Yadav expects the situation to return to normalcy soon. "Since the festival is ending today (Sunday), we hope everything will come back to normalcy from Monday," he added.

DDC increases milk price

State-owned DDC has increased the price of fresh milk by Rs 2 per liter from Sunday. The hike means, half-liter pack of DDC will now cost Rs 18. The increment comes a few days after the government allowed dairy firms to raise the price of fresh milky by as much as Rs 4 per liter.

The government was forced to increase the milk price after dairy farmers across the country took to the streets. Dairy farmers demanded the government to raise price of milk, saying that the price had not been increased despite sharp rise in milk production cost.

Dairy farmers are still continuing their protest, pressing the dairy firms to enforce the government´s decision of raising the milk price by Rs 4 per liter. However, private dairy firms have so far refrained from increasing the price of milk, fearing that they might lost their market share due to tough competition in the market.

The nationwide demand of fresh milk is around 450,000 liters per day.