After price hike, Aavin launches new sweets for Deepavali

CHENNAI: Just after raising the price of its sweet products, Aavin on Friday launched eight new sweets for the upcoming Deepavali season. State Dairy Minister S M Nasar introduced the sweet products and said that the price of Aavin sweets are 20 per cent less than the sweets available in the market.

Ghee badusha (Rs 760 per kg), nuts halwa (Rs 760 per kg), stuffed motipak (Rs 720 per kg), kaju pista roll (Rs 1,280 per kg), kaju katli (Rs 1,040 per kg), assorted pack (Rs 900 per kg), ghee halwa (Rs 500 per kg) and Karupatti halwa (Rs 680 per kg) are the eight new sweets launched by Aavin.

"While the previous AIADMK government sold sweets for Rs 55 crore in 2019-20 apart from wasting 8 tonnes of sweets the last year sale was Rs 85 crore with a huge demand. This year, Aavin has set sales target of Rs 200 to 250 crore and 700 to 800 tonnes, in terms of weight. The sweets were introduced much earlier this year to cater to the demands," said the Minister, after launching the sweets.

Meanwhile, Aavin hiked the price of sweets on Thursday and the price raise came into effect from Friday. The price hike was in the range of 20 per cent. When asked the reason for the price hike, Nasar replied that increase in GST by the Union government has forced to hike the price, but it is still lesser when compared to the sweets available in the open market. He also said that unlike private shops all the profit comes to the government.

Nasar further said that unlike the previous years, the sweets launched this year come with a wrapping of plastic on top which will keep the sweet intact for 20 to 25 days and so Aavin has planned to export the sweets to USA, Singapore and Dubai.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Milk Dealers, Employees Welfare Association condemned the price hike of Aavin sweets.

SA Ponnusamy, President of the association, questioned that if Aavin is a non-profit organisation why were the prices of sweets increased despite them being sold in profits.