The Tiruchi District Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union, which is marketing its dairy products under Aavin, plans to tap the North Indian market to sell its skimmed milk powder (SMP).

The union produces SMP at the plants owned by the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers’ Federation in Erode and Krishnagiri. The Tiruchi Aavin sends surplus milk after meeting the local requirements tin Tiruchi, Ariyalur, Karur and Chennai to skimmed milk powder plants. On overage, it allocates s about one lakh litres for producing milk powder.

The union sells mainly through the e-auction portal of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and the cooperative federations across the country.

According to sources, the rate for SMP has picked up in recent weeks, particularly in the North Indian markets. There has been a good demand for the SMP produced by Aavin in Utter Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and others. The buyers tend to pile up SMP ahead of the holi festival, a popular festival celebrated in many States of the country, falls on 18 March.

“There is an upward trend for the SMP in North Indian market. We are making efforts to tap the demand,” says R. Abirami, General Manager, Tiruchi Aavin.

She said that SMP was the main ingredient for making milk-based sweets. People in many States exchange sweets with relatives, neighbours, and friends during the Holi festival. Hence, the demand for SMP had gone up mainly in the North Indian markets. It would be utilised well.

Ms. Abirami said that February and March were the ideal months to market SMP. The prices would generally go up in the first quarter of the financial year. One kg of SMP had gone up to ₹250. It was hovering around ₹180 and ₹190. The current rate was reasonably good. The rate was expected to go up further in the first week of March.

There were buyers for the available stock of SMP. A team of officials had been asked to sell SMP as much as possible by tapping the demand, Ms. Abirami said.

Source : The Hindu 24 Feb 2022 by C Jaisankar