The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has had financial repercussions in the dairy sector, with Goa Dairy facing huge losses from rising raw material costs to produce cattle feed.
After posting a profit for the first time during the last fiscal year, Goa Dairy’s cattle feed manufacturing plant in Mharvasaddo-Usgao has faced a loss of more than Rs 65,000 per day.
Officials said that imports of key ingredients used in the manufacture of cattle feed have been affected due to the ongoing war and therefore Indian suppliers importing these items have increased tariffs.
A Goa dairy plant official said they source raw materials such as defatted rice bran (DRB), cottonseed extract and fine rice polishing (rice bran) from companies in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and other neighboring states for feed production. “We are facing a loss of around 1-1.5 rupees per kilo of cattle feed, while the plant sells around 50 tonnes of feed every day. Prices of key ingredients such as rice bran have been increased by Rs 10-12 by vendors,” the official said.
Most of the edible oils are imported from foreign countries and the supply has been affected by the war. States such as Rajasthan and Maharashtra use rice bran oil for cooking and thus the shortage has led to a surge in demand and subsequent rise in prices, the official said.
As Goa Dairy is a cooperative union of around 137 village-level milk collecting societies, it provides cattle feed to farmers at subsidized prices in a bid to promote milk production.
Goa Dairy’s cattle feed plant supplies high protein and high energy cattle feed, jmaka chuni (maize powder), pregnancy rations, calf rations and kadba kutti (chopped pieces of jowar or sorghum and green vegetables). to dairy farmers in the state.
Former Chairman of the Management Committee, Durgesh Shirodkar, had announced that the loss-making cattle feed plant had posted a profit during the 2021-22 fiscal year for the first time.
The plant has said it made a profit of Rs 2.3 crore against a loss of Rs 4.5 crore in the previous year (2020-21).
The Goa State Cooperative Milk Producers Union, popularly known as Goa Dairy, made a gross profit of Rs 3.7 crore, including the profit from the cattle feed plant. The dairy had a turnover of Rs 13.3 crore for the 2020-21 fiscal year against Rs 6.4 crore in the previous year.
During the fiscal year 2021-22, Goa Dairy earned an income of Rs 10.1 crore through the sale of milk and dairy products on the open retail market, and the cattle feed plant’s income from the sale of food to farmers was Rs 2.3 million rupees. For 2020-21, the revenue from the dairy was set at Rs 9.3 crore.
Source : The Times of India March 22, 2022