Demand goes up for Srivilliputhur ‘palkova’ despite milk shortage

MADURAI: Just few days ahead of Deepavali, there’s huge demand for Srivilliputhur ‘palkova’ a unique milk sweet of that region.

After two-year COVID hiatus, the demand for Srivilliputhur ‘palkova,’ which is globally popular, is peaking this festival season. Over the last 10 days, the local market has been witnessing robust sales, T Kannan, president, Srivilliputhur Milk Producers Cooperative Society, Virudhunagar district, said on Wednesday.

According to C Sivanan, manager of the society, the ‘palkova’ sale is up, despite a fall in production, due to decline in milk yield. The inclement weather and unseasonal rains during summer are blamed for the dip in milk production in Srivilliputhur. Owing to the rains, milch cows could hardly feed on grass, he said.

“On a daily average, the society makes about 200 to 250 kg of ‘palkova’ from about 650 to 700 litres of milk and as demand has spiked due to the Deepavali, 100 more kg are being prepared additionally nowadays,” Kannan told DT Next. Around 5,000 litres of milk is procured daily from dairy farms enrolled with the society, which was registered in October 1945. Now, there’s a shortfall of 400 litres per day. To offset this deficit, the required quantity is being procured from Aavin, Virudhunagar, which’s also facing a shortage of around 8,000 litres against its daily average production of 18,000 litres.

One kilo of Srivilliputhur ‘palkova’ with a recognition of its own –(registered with Q 106 Srivilliputhur Milk Producers Cooperative Society) is priced at Rs 260 and it’s the same market price for the last four years now. The sweet delicacy is available in packs of quarter and half kg too .

Even though the cost of cattle feed, firewood and butter paper have increased manifold, the society did not hike the price of fresh milk, which’s sold at Rs 40 a litre over the counter and the ‘palkova’ too.

S Kumar, another producer of ‘palkova’ and a private vendor, from Srivilliputhur, said shortage of milk resulted in a 30 per cent decline in production. Owing to the strong demand and weak supply, ‘palkova’ was being sold at Rs 300 per kg for the last 10 days against the normal market price of Rs 280. With 10 litres of milk and 1.25 kg of sugar, three kg of ‘palkova’ could be made, he said.