Amul hikes milk prices by ₹2/ltr in Delhi and other major markets from Tuesday

Dairy major Amul said on Monday it will increase milk prices by ₹2 per litre in Delhi NCR, Maharashtra and other states from Tuesday due to an increase in production cost.

Milk prices were last revised two years back in March 2017, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which sells milk and milk products under the Amul brand, said in a statement.

The new price will come into effect from May 21 onwards and on all six brands being sold in major markets of Delhi-NCR, Gujarat, West Bengal, Kolkata, Uttaranchal, Maharashtra and other states, the GCMMF said in a statement.

The revised price of 500 millilitre (ml) pack of 'Amul Gold' in Ahmedabad will be ₹27, 'Amul Shakti' at ₹25, 'Amul Taaza' at ₹21 and 'Amul Diamond' at Rs 28, it said.

There has been no change in cow milk prices in Gujarat, the cooperative added.

"This increase in milk prices by ₹2per litre has happened after a gap of two years with an aim to provide remunerative milk purchase price to our milk producers owing to drop in milk production and increase in cost of production," GCMMF said.

Considering increase in the cost of milk production, all member milk unions of Gujarat have increased milk purchase price by a minimum of ₹30-50 per kg fat (5-8 per cent) over the last few months, it said.

This will motivate milk producers to keep inducting new animals and to keep producing milk and support their livelihood, it added.

Stating that national and international dairy markets have witnessed adverse conditions in the last two years, GCMMF said there has been a steep decline in prices of commodities such as skimmed milk produce (SMP) and butter oil. This has resulted in a decline in producer prices of milk across India, leading to adverse impact on milk producers.

"However, the milk cooperatives of Gujarat continued to pay remunerative prices of milk to its producers and the average final price of milk paid to our producers has increased to ₹710 per kg fat in 2017-18 to ₹730 per kg fat in 2018-19," it said.

Unfortunately over the last one year, GCMMF said, there has been a major increase in prices of major cattle feed ingredients such as de-oiled rice bran by 61 per cent, rice polish fine by 22 per cent, molasses by 82 per cent, maize by 63 per cent etc, which has resulted in increase in the cattle feed price by over 15 per cent.

Similarly, the rate green fodder has seen hike of more than 100 per cent in this summer.

Amul, as a cooperative, passes on almost 80 paise of every rupee paid by consumers to the milk producers, the cooperative added.