The dairy industry has proposed increasing the price of milk by 10 rupees per liter. According to the Nepal Dairy Association, it has proposed increasing the price of milk by 10 rupees per liter based on the production cost of milk.
The proposal has been sent to the Cabinet. Every year, the National Dairy Development Board proposes milk prices in coordination with Dairy Development Corporation (DDC), Nepal Dairy Association, Dairy Industries Association and Central Dairy Cooperative Association Limited Nepal. That price is implemented through the Ministry of Agriculture after being approved by the Council of Ministers.
Last December, the dairy industry had increased the price of milk themselves. The increase in milk price by Rs 14 per liter was halted following the intervention of the National Dairy Development Board.
After that, the board formed a team to study the production cost of milk in all the seven provinces. According to the association, after the teams came from different provinces to study the costs of farmers and industries, they proposed to increase the price by 10 rupees per liter.
Similarly, last time, the price of milk increased in two years. This year, the industrialists have put pressure to increase the price saying that the production is low and the farmers have stopped rearing animals. According to the association, milk production is currently low across the country.
Although 300,000 liters of milk is produced daily, the association claims that the production has been less than 200,500 liters in recent times. The association has also demanded permission to import raw milk from India as the milk production is low. Currently, there is a ban on the import of milk and milk products.
Likewise, industrialists say that the situation in the dairy sector has become dire due to the decrease in milk production. Milk production was high till the last week of February. After that, the shortage will increase even more. According to the association, currently less than 30 percent of milk is being produced daily and even that will drop by 50 percent in a few days. The lack of milk is not only experienced by the private sector but also by the government milk development institute.
According to the DDC, 100,000 liters of milk is being collected daily. Earlier, 160,000 liters of milk was collected in the winter season. According to the DDC, the production of water and powdered milk has decreased due to less collection of milk. The Corporation has only 50,000 tons of water and 80,000 tons of powdered milk.
Source : My Republika Feb 20th 2023