CHENNAI: The difference in price of milk sold by private brands and State-owned Aavin has widened by nearly Rs 20 per litre from Sunday as two popular private dairies in Tamil Nadu have hiked their price by up to Rs 6 per litre.
The market price of other dairy products such as ghee, butter and sweets, however, are still on a par with Aavin’s price. While price of Aavin milk was last increased on August 18, 2019, private milk companies have increased price of their products four times over the past three years.
On Sunday, the price of Arokya full cream milk, from Hatsun Agro Product, was hiked to Rs 69 from Rs 66 a litre. Aavin’s full cream milk is sold for `48 a litre. Similarly, the price of Arokya’s standardised milk was hiked from Rs 60 to Rs 63 per litre. A similar variant of Aavin milk currently costs Rs 44 per litre.
The selling price of Srinivasa milk, from Srirangam Milk Products, was also revised to Rs 64 (full cream) and Rs 58 (standardised) per litre.
‘Govt must increase milk procurement price soon’
MG Rajendran, general secretary, TN Milk Producers Welfare Association, said, “Since the price difference between private and Aavin brand milk has reached Rs 19 to Rs 21 per litre, the State government must increase milk procurement price immediately,” Rajendran said the price of cattle feed has increased by 50% over the past three years but government’s procurement price has not been revised.
“Farmers who supply milk to Aavin are incurring a loss of Rs 10 to Rs 14 a litre,” he said. Aavin procures about 38 lakh litres of milk from 4.5 lakh milk producers per day. On August 18, 2019, the State government hiked the procurement price of cow milk by Rs 4 to Rs 32 per litre and buffalo milk Rs 6 to Rs 41 per litre. As a result, the per-litre price of toned milk went up from Rs 37 to Rs 43, and standardised milk from Rs 41 to Rs 47, and full cream milk from Rs 45 to Rs 51 per litre.
On May 16 last year, the new DMK government, however, cut the price of milk by Rs.3 per litre bringing down prices to Rs 40 (toned), Rs 44 (standardised) and Rs 48 (for full cream milk) respectively. A senior official said during the pandemic when private companies slashed the procurement price by up to Rs. 15 a litre, Aavin had not reduced it in keeping in mind farmers’ interest.
“We have also put a system in place to ensure faster release of funds to farmers. Hike in procurement price is a policy decision of the government,” he said. Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Dairies Association has urged the State to withdraw the subsidy given to dairy sector. R Rajasekaran, secretary of TNDA, said, “Aavin incurs an average loss of Rs 265 crore every year and the same is being written off by the State to avoid further delay in payment to farmers.
Animal husbandry sector’s overall contribution to the farming sector in the State is huge. The undue subsidy given to cooperative societies may deter private players from making further investments in the dairy sector in Tamil Nadu as it happened in Karnataka.”