Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Milk prices are going to hit the common man hard from Tuesday. Loose milk will be sold dearer by Rs 3 per litre to Rs 50 per litre. Prices of the Sanchi brand of milk are also set to increase by a minimum of Rs 2 per litre very shortly.
The Indore Dugdha Vikreta Sangha, which sells loose milk from shops and also makes deliveries of milk in cans to homes, took the decision to increase the prices of milk at its meeting held on Sunday. The Sangha has claimed that the benefit of the increased prices will be directly passed on to the milk producers because the prices of cottonseed cakes have gone up. Currently, consumers are getting milk at the threshold price of Rs 47 per litre.
The meeting of the sangha was presided over by its president, Bharat Mathurawala. Leading milk-sellers Umashankar Joshi, Tulsiram Pal, Mahesh Sharma, Shankarlal Joshi, Bhanu Purohit and so forth attended the meeting.
Later, Mathurawala said, “We’ve taken the decision to support milk producers and sellers who are facing the steep hike in prices of cottonseed oilcake fodder. Therefore, we have to increase the price even though we didn’t want to do it.” He mentioned that the price of cottonseed cakes had reached Rs 3,825 per quintal. At the same time, the prices of wheat flour and fodder have also increased. So, from March 1, milk having fat from 5.5 to 6 fat will be purchased from milk producers at a price of Rs 50 per litre and will be sold to consumers at the same price.
Milk sold from shops will also be sold at the same price. The producers will get the full benefit of the increase in the milk prices. There are about 1.5 lakh milk-producing farmers in the district and in the adjoining areas. An average of 12 lakh litres of milk are being produced in the district, of which around 8 lakh litres are sold as a ‘loose’.
Sanchi milk prices also set to be hit
AN Dwivedi, CEO of the Indore Dugdha Sangha, which sells milk under the brand of Sanchi, said, “We’ve sent a proposal to hike the retail sale prices of milk to the Marketing Federation.” Sources said that the prices of different brands of Sanchi milk may also be increased by Rs 2 very shortly as soon as the sangha got approval for their proposal.