Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

No end in sight to shortage of milk

— Photo: S. Mahinsha

Agitation mode: DYFI activists gheraoing Milma Managing Director Baby Joseph at his office on Thursday in protest against the hike in price of ‘Milma Rich’ milk.

Thiruvananthapuram: Even as senior Milma and Dairy Development officials are on a desperate mission to neighbouring States to ask for more milk for the State, the confrontational mood between the government and the Milma over the issue of milk price hike has not eased. Milma and government officials are holding discussions with Tamil Nadu on Friday in an attempt to procure more milk from Tamil Nadu.

Milma is currently procuring nearly three lakh litres of milk from Karnataka to meet the internal supply shortage, incurring a daily loss of about Rs.8 lakh.

Milma proposed a Rs.3 hike per litre of toned milk being supplied in the State as it could no longer afford to procure milk from Karnataka, then process and sell it at a lower price. However, the government has taken the stance that a further hike in the price of milk cannot be allowed. The price of milk was hiked by Rs.1 per litre in November last, even though Milma had asked for a Rs.2 hike.

“We can easily get enough milk from Karnataka if we are willing to pay the dues. But our financial position has eroded considerably and there is a crunch of even the working capital because we suffered a loss of Rs.17 crore last year, procuring milk from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu,” according to a senior official.

“The crux of the issue is the steadily declining milk production in the State, which the government wants to overlook,” he added.

The State Planning Board’s Economic Review 2006 points out that annual milk production in the State has plunged from 27.18 lakh tonnes in 2001-02 to 20.63 lakh tonnes in 2005-06. The per capita availability of milk is the lowest in the country at just 169 gm/day, the report says.

Meanwhile, on Thursday, a group of DYFI activists who stormed into the office of Milma’s Thiruvananthapuram Regional Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union demanded that Milma withdraw the price hike on one of its milk variants, ‘Milma Rich.’ The price of this high-fat milk variant had been hiked by Milma from Rs.20 to Rs.22 per litre recently.

“It was a decision of Milma Board to hike the price of ‘Rich’ and we cannot reduce the price under political pressure. So we have decided to withdraw the product from the market in Thiruvananthapuram region. We will continue to supply toned and double-toned milk at the previous prices till the Board meets again to decide whether Milma can afford to carry on like this,” a Milma official said.

The maximum shortage in procurement and supply is being felt in Milma’s Thiruvananthapuram Region (Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alapuzha) where the internal procurement is only about 2.32 lakh litres per day, while the sales is around 4.40 lakh litres.

Official said, to tide over the current financial crisis, it was an internal strategy devised by Milma to hike the price of some of its milk variants so that it can manage to continue supply on a no-loss basis.

Accordingly, the Board had decided to increase the sale of ‘Rich’ milk in Thiruvananthapuram region from 10,000 litres a day to 75,000 litres.

“Even our short-term strategy to manage the situation has been torpedoed. Apart from a price hike, the only option now before us is to restrict the supply to the available internal procurement. We are looking at a situation of acute milk shortage in the market,” he added.

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