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Debjit Mukherjee: Amid the festive season, The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, which markets its products under the Amul brand, hiked the rates of milk by Rs 2 per litre. The price of full cream milk has increased from Rs 61 per litre to Rs 63 per litre, which is expected to impact household budgets. Amul has also increased the price of gold and buffalo milk by Rs 2 per litre.
However, the prices have not been raised in Gujarat, which is scheduled to go into elections by the end of this year.
“Amul has increased prices of full cream milk, gold and buffalo milk by Rs 2 per litre in all states except Gujarat,” RS Sodhi, MD, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited said in a statement.
The decision to hike the prices of milk has been taken amid a surge in demand in dairy fat prices. Mother Dairy had also hiked prices to compensate for the increase in procurement costs.
“The prices of gold and buffalo milk prices has been increased by Rs 2 per litre due to an increase in fat prices in some other markets in Gujarat. Only for gold and buffalo milk due to higher dairy fat prices,” RS Sodhi said.
Prior to this, milk prices were hiked in March this year but the latest hike comes two months after Amul, in August, announced an increase in the prices of Amul’s Gold, Shakti and Taaza milk brands by Rs 2 per litre.
On the other hand, lumpy skin disease may have also contributed to disruptions in milk production and distribution in states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab where milk production has decreased by more than 45 per cent.
The cattle diseases affecting buffaloes, cows and oxen has spread to 15 states, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal, Madhya Pradesh and UTs. The disease as already killed about nearly 1 lakh cattle in India.
