State-owned Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) has increased the price of pasteurized milk by Rs 4 to Rs 44 per liter (Rs 22 per 500 gram packet) effective from Thursday. The board meeting of DDC held on Tuesday took the decision.
With the rise in price, farmers and DDC will get Rs 3 per liter and Re 1 per liter respectively.
National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) -- the dairy sector regulator -- had recommended the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) to increase the price, citing rising cost of milk production.
“With the consent of MoAC, we have decided to raise milk price by Rs 4 per liter,” Siyaram Singh, deputy general manager of DDC, told Republica on Wednesday. Singh said the price of 500 ml non-skimmed (green packet) and skimmed (blue packet) milk has reached Rs 25 and Rs 22 respectively.
Singh said farmers had long been pushing for price hike, citing deepening deficit of milk in the domestic market. To cope with the supply deficit, DDC has been importing around 25,000 to 30,000 liters of fresh milk from Patna Dairy Project -- an undertaking of India´s Bihar government, every day.
“We made recommendation to raise milk price by Rs 4 per liter, taking into consideration rising prices of milking cattle, feeds, nutrients, wages of workers, fuel and interest on bank loan,” D N Pathak, executive director of NDDB said. He further added that the country was facing milk deficit of 400,000 liters.
Daily demand for milk hovers around 1.2 million liters. DDC had last hiked milk price by Rs 2 per liter on May 15 last year.
Ram Kumar Khadka, president of Private Dairies´ Association, said private dairies have no option but to hike milk price as the DDC, which commands more than 40 percent share in domestic market, has already increased price of its products.
“We will take formal decision on price hike within a couple of days. We will raise price in line with the DDC´s pricing,” Khadka added. He said farmers would get at least Rs 28 to Rs 40 per liter depending on fat and solid not fat (SNF) contain in the milk.
Around 300 small and big private dairies are operating across the country.
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