The Maharashtra government’ is not able to control prices of dairy products in the state. For one thing, there is a fall in international prices of dairy products with over half the milk collected in Maharashtra being diverted into production of milk powder, butter and cheese.
This is why only producers of liquid milk have paid farmers the state mandated price of Rs 20 a litre. These producers have not lowered milk prices, though. Amul – the leading dairy cooperative is not lowering the retail price of milk either, reports a news outlet.
Mr R.S. Sodhi MD GCMMF has said “Other brands had increased prices and were selling at higher prices than us by about Rs 2 per litre, Rs 3 per litre. Our milk price has been constant at Rs 38 per litre. So there is no question of reducing it further,” said RS Sodhi.
Earlier Maharashtra dairy development minister Eknath Khadse had called upon the government- supported milk cooperative Mahanand Dairy to reduce milk prices by Rs 2 per litre litre, Rs 3 per litre.
Sources say the government-backed milk cooperative Mahanand Dairy has yet to take a decision. Dairies operating in the Kolhapur-Sangli belt, which produce mainly liquid pouched milk for supply to Mumbai, have been paying the government rate to farmers.
Kolhapur-based Gokul Dairy, which collects 8 lakh litres of milk daily, pays farmers Rs 24.60 a litre and sells at Rs 39 a litre. Sonai Dairy , based at Indapur in Pune district, specialises in the production of milk powder, butter and ghee, collecting about 24 lakh litres of milk a day.