With inflation already burning a hole in the pockets of residents, a hike in milk prices by ₹2 per litre is set to disturb the household budget of residents.
After the recent price hike announced by the giants of the packed milk industry, Amul and Verka, the Haibowal Dairy Owners’ Association has also announced to increase the milk prices by ₹2 per litre from September 1, while the Tajpur road Dairy Association is also contemplating a hike in the coming days.
The prices have been increased for the third time during the last 14 months. Dairy farmers had increased the prices by ₹3 per litre in June last year and by ₹2 per litre in March this year.
The price of cow milk has now increased from ₹55 to ₹57. The price of cow-buffalo mix milk has gone up from ₹65 to ₹67 and buffalo milk price has surged from ₹75 to ₹77, chairperson of Haibowal dairy complex Paramjit Singh Bobby said. The price of a one litre Verka (a milk brand of state government cooperative) milk with 4.5% fat has been increased from ₹53 to ₹55.
While around 500 dairy owners in Haibowal dairy complex supply around 1.5 lakh litre (or kg) of milk on a daily basis, including supply to the bulk consumers— sweet shop owners, hotels etc, Verka Ludhiana supplies around 3 lakh litre of milk in the district.
“The rise in milk prices will also lead to an increase in the price of curd, butter, cheese (paneer) and clarified butter(ghee). This will put an additional burden of around ₹500-600 on every household,” Poonam Gupta, a resident of Deep Nagar near Dandi Swami chowk said.
Another resident of civil lines, Varun Bansal, said rising prices of ghee, flour, pulses etc are already taking a toll and the hike in milk prices will certainly disturb the budget of residents. “The government should step in to keep the prices of milk stable and low as milk prices and other dairy items have a direct impact on the customers,” he added.
Milk suppliers unhappy too
A milk supplier, Joginder Singh, said, “ Since customers also raise hue and cry over the hiked rates, it becomes difficult for us to make them understand. The demand for milk also reduces in the market after a sudden hike and it takes some time to bring business back on track.”
Similarly, a Verka booth manager in old city area, Rajesh, said after the union government imposed 5 per cent GST on packed items, including curd, lassi etc, there was a sharp fall in the demand. With this increase in milk prices, the prices of other dairy items would also increase which is not good for business, he added.
Dairy owners blame rising input costs
Dairy owners blame the rising cost of raw material or input cost of farmers for the hike. Further, they said lumpy skin disease (LSD) in cattle has also taken a toll on dairy farmers with a large number of animals dying or getting infected due to which the supply has also been affected.
Bobby said that the rates of fodder have soured and the price of animal feed has increased by ₹7-8 per kg.
“ To keep our business running it is important to revise the prices timely. Dairy farmers are struggling to make the ends meet. LSD has also hit the business due to which many of the farms are on the verge of closure. The dairy sector is bearing huge losses and it was necessary to increase the milk prices to save the sector,” Bobby said.
Speaking of the hike in prices announced by Verka, marketing manager, Ludhiana, Sandeep Singh Baidwan, said procurement cost of milk for Verka had increased in the recent past as the farmers supplying milk to Verka had been decrying rising input cost due to which it was forced to increase the milk prices.
Hike in prices to play spoilsport in festival season
The hike in milk prices is also expected to play a spoilsport during the festival season as the prices of sweets, cheese etc are set to increase in the coming days.
After the announcement made by dairy owners to hike the milk prices , the Halwai Association said it would also be forced to increase the prices of sweets.
While the price of cheese is expected to increase by ₹20 per kg, different sweets will become costlier by upto ₹15 per kg.
President of Punjab Halwai Association Narinder Pal Singh Pappu said the sweetmeat sector was forced to hike the rates of sweets as the prices of milk are being increased by dairy farmers.
“ We are not increasing our profit, but the rates will be revised just to cover the hike in input cost. We have been suffering losses in the past due to the pandemic and the sector cannot survive for a long time if the rates are not revised. A meeting of the association will be held in the coming days to take a final decision on the prices of sweets, cheese etc,” Pappu said.
