KOCHI: Lockdown has resulted in a change in consumption of milk products with people opting for long-life milk and dairy whitener. Data from the state’s largest milk producer Milma reveals the sales of UHT (ultrahigh temp) long-life milk grew three times to 7,500 litres while sales of dairy whitener doubled to 12 metric tonnes during lockdown.

“This was because of non-availability of milk in some areas due to restrictions and less number of shops functioning. People store UHT milk and dairy whitener (milk powder) as alternatives to fresh milk. While sales of paneer grew by almost 40 per cent, ice-cream, ghee and butter showed a robust increase in sales  of 10 to 15 per cent in the latter part of lockdown,” said Milma Managing Director Dr Patil Suyog Subhashrao.

The online sales of milk also recorded the highest growth during lockdown. As per the data, online milk sales jumped from 2,000-2,500 milk packets/day before lockdown to 10,000 milk packets/day during the initial and second stage of lockdown. “Initially, the milk supply was only through AM Needs App in Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam. Soon, other districts roped in online delivery platforms like Swiggy, Aye Auto, Getontouch, Potafo and Zomato to deliver milk and milk products,” he said.

Though milk procurement was slightly low in the initial days of lockdown, falling from 11.77 lakh litres/day before lockdown to 11.43 lakh litres/day in the initial lockdown period, the procurement rose from 10.78 lakh litres/day on April 13 to 10.95 lakh litres/day during Ramzan period. “During lockdown, dairy farming has been one of the few activities where farmers have been getting assured remuneration. There has been a sudden increase in procurement during lockdown as societies were not able to make local sale.

Though Milma reached a stage of surplus milk, we continued collecting milk and converted surplus milk into milk powder despite it being a loss-making activity,” Subhashrao said, adding though milk sales plummeted from 13.16 lakh litres/day to 10.19 lakh litres/day during the initial days of lockdown, it rose to 10.96 lakh litres/day in the due course touching 12.66 lakh litres/day from the start of the Ramzan period. The share of urban to rural sales which stood at 60:40 before lockdown changed to 75:25.