Amul fears milk, products may come under FTA

Vadodara: Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has expressed apprehension that the union government will include milk and milk products under the free trade agreement (FTA) and drastically cut import duty on them.
GCMMF vice-chairman Jetha Bharwad raised this issue in the assembly on Thursday and demanded that the state government raise the issue with the centre.
Bharwad said that it has come to his notice that big multinational companies and developed nations like New Zealand, Australia, Europe among others are keen to bring cheaper milk and milk products to Indian markets through the FTA route or by paying low or negligible import duty.
According to Bharwad, New Zealand wants to supply skimmed milk powder (SMP) to India at the price of Rs 150 per kg. “If this is accepted by the concerned department of the central government, all the milk producing organizations in India will have to reduce the price of cow milk by Rs 5-Rs 7 per litre. In such circumstances, it is estimated that milk producers will get Rs 50,000 crore less annually for their milk supply.
“In the developed countries, only 8,000 to 10,000 milk producers are engaged in milk production. We should worry about the crores of milk producers in India rather than about 8,000 to 10,000,” Bharwad said. He also asked the state government to urge the concerned department of the union government to prevent such FTA.
Bharwad claimed that over the last eight years milk unions associated with Amul have substantially increased milk procurement price paid to farmers whose incomes have surged four times in the same period.
When asked to comment on the development, GCMMF managing director R S Sodhi said that he did not believe that such a step would be taken. “It is a question of the fate of seven crore poor farmers. We will go the edible oil way if this happens and become dependent on imports,” he said.