Year’s first: Amul to hike milk prices by Rs 2 this month

The prices of milk sold under the Amul brand will increase by up to Rs 2 per litre in April. This will be the first hike this calendar year, after the prices rose by almost 22% in the last two years.

"Milk prices will increase by about 5-7%. But unlike last year, when the prices were increased 2-3 times, this year we plan to raise the prices only once," said R S Sodhi, managing director of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) that markets the Amul brand of milk across the country.

The official added the hike ranging between Re 1 and Rs 2 a litre will be implemented this month.

According to Sodhi, 80% of the price rise has been passed to the farmers during the last two years. "The DA of government employees has increased by 7% and I feel even farmers should be given a similar raise as early as possible," he told mediapersons on the sidelines of the launch of Amul Pro, its new Whey Protein malt beverage brand for children.

The procurement prices of milk has doubled in the last three years. GCMMF is procuring buffalo and cow milk from farmers at Rs 33 and Rs 23 per litre, respectively. "This is the highest price a farmer is getting anywhere in India. Gujarat is paying the highest price to milk farmers," Sodhi said.

He said the biggest challenge for the milk co-operatives was to retain farmers interest in the dairy business. "We are seeing that the new generation of farmers is not interested in the dairy business," he said, hinting that giving good prices to farmers was one way of keeping them interested.

The increase in prices to farmers has seen the annual milk procurement of GCMMF grow by 22%. This year the milk co-operative clocked a peak procurement of 145 lakh litres, in comparison to 120 lakh litres the previous year.

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