Election brings ‘achhe din’ for dairy farmers

Vadodara: The rising mercury levels coupled with the election season seems to have brought ‘achhe din’ for dairy farmers in Gujarat.
After witnessing a gloom that stretched for over a year, almost all the district dairy unions of Gujarat have started increasing milk procurement prices in the state.

If the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL) popularly known as Amul Dairy is increasing procurement price from Rs 610 to Rs 630 per kilo fat with effect from Thursday, other milk unions like Vadodara’s Baroda Dairy, Banaskantha’s Banas Dairy and Godhra’s Panchamrut Dairy have also announced hike in the range of Rs 10 to Rs 20 per kilo fat.

Dairies in Sabarkantha, Mehsana, Valsad, Amreli and Junagadh too have hiked procurement prices.

It is worth mentioning here that a majority of dairy unions in the state which have a strength of more than 36 lakh farmer members are directly controlled by BJP leaders.

Last year, amidst global crashing of skimmed milk powder (SMP) prices, the dairy co-operatives were staring at a milk glut. Many milk unions in the state for the first time in over a decade and a half had slashed the procurement prices paid to its farmers.

Amul Dairy, which had the distinction of paying highest procurement prices in the country, for instance had slashed prices from Rs 680 to Rs 660 per kilo fat in August. The prices had further declined to Rs 610 till the onset of summer.

“Almost all our member unions have started paying more to dairy farmers as commodity market is improving and SMP prices are also improving in the global market,” said R S Sodhi, managing director of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the apex marketing body of all the district dairy unions of the state that markets brand Amul.

Milk production too is 1 to 2 % lower this summer compared to last year with Amul’s member unions procuring nearly 230 lakh litres a day at present.

“Earlier, all the dairies had huge inventory of SMP as its prices in international market was around Rs 150 per kg which now has improved to Rs 210 to Rs 220 per kg. At the same time, factors like increase in cost of milk production and the beginning of the lean season has led to a fall in production. All these has led to hike in procurement prices,” he said.

Sodhi however added that the hike in procurement prices will not impact consumer prices.