TN milk producers assn asks govt to compensate for loss

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Association has urged the state government to compensate the loss to be incurred by Aavin in the wake of hiking the procurement price of a litre of milk by Rs 3.

“We have been demanding a hike in procurement price of milk by Rs 10 per litre for the last two years along with other demands. Now, Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers' Federation managing director has announced a hike of Rs 3 per litre of milk. Due to the increase of the procurement price of milk, there was no mention of the government taking over the loss of Rs 400 crore to be suffered by the Aavin,” the association president P Muhammad Ali said in a statement.

After the procurement price of cow and buffalo milk was hiked by Rs 4 and Rs 6 per litre in 2019, he said that the price rise of cattle feeds led to us demanding a further procurement price hike of Rs 10 per litre. “We feel the present hike of Rs 3 per litre is inadequate and it should be revised upwards,” he said, demanding that primary milk cooperatives should be paid Rs 1.75 per litre from Rs 1.25 per litre and the salary of 25,000 workers in 10,000 primary cooperatives should be hiked.

Ali pointed out that with the private dairy companies paying Rs 5 to Rs 10 per litre more than the Aavin procurement price, only 8,000 out of the 12,000 primary cooperatives supply milk to Aavin. “The government’s dairy development department’s functioning threatens to destroy the milk cooperatives and Aavin,” he warned. He demanded the government should hold talks with all the associations on hiking the procurement price and other demands.