Teashops refuse to buy less fat milk: Agents

VELLORE: After the Vellore Aavin unit reduced the fat content in milk, the demand for Aavin milk from daily consumers has been going south, lament milk agents affiliated to the milk cooperative.

It may be recalled that DT Next on last Sunday highlighted how the cash-strapped Vellore Aavin reduced 1 per cent fat in both the green and orange colour packets and renamed them delite and gold respectively.

When a meeting of selected agents in the Vellore office demurred over the move, they were told that a similar experiment had met with success at Karaikudi in Sivaganga. The new move was introduced on October 16. However, agents in Tirupattur and Vellore outskirts are lamenting that customers were able to judge the change by “just handling the milk sachet.”

Most agents were affected when tea stalls, who are their major clients, refused to accept the new coloured packets on the ground that the milk was too watery.

Ansari (name changed) in Vellore said, “I have stocked 80 litres due to tea stalls refusing to buy even at highly reduced rates. I do not know what to do with this milk.”

Stating that he sold 180 litres daily to teashops, he added, “Though they were willing to buy for a couple of days, they flatly refuse to do so from Thursday onwards citing customer issues.”

Agents said that most teashops now prefer to buy their milk from local milkmen. Bilal (name changed) of Tirupattur said agents livelihood should not be affected it.

Asked about this, TN Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (Chennai Aavin) MD S Vineet told this newspaper, “Local GMs are empowered to undertake such changes after proper field study. The Vellore Aavin GM must have studied the market before the current conversion of the two controversial milk varieties.”