No intention to hike retail prices: Mother Dairy Chairman
Mother Dairy, which hiked milk prices by Rs 2 per litre last month, on Tuesday said there is no “intention” currently to further increase the retail price in view of comfortable supply situation.
Mother Dairy, one of the leading fresh milk suppliers in India, sells around 55 lakh litre of milk per day across many States.
On May 14, the company increased consumer prices of its liquid milk variants by Rs 2 per litre to partly offset rising input costs.
At a press conference, Mother Dairy Chairman Meenesh Shah said the company increased milk prices last month after a gap of one year because of the increased input cost.
About any plans to increase rates further, he said, “I do not foresee any increase. But then if there is any increase in input cost and we are in a situation where we are unable to meet our ends, we will see.”
“But, as of now, we have no intention to increase the consumer price,” said Shah, who is also the Chairman of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). Mother Dairy is a wholly owned subsidiary of the NDDB.
He asserted that the milk supply situation and procurement of milk from farmers in the country are comfortable now.
On concerns related to supply of fodder in view of IMD’s forecast of below normal monsoon, Shah said there should not be any problem in the total availability of fodder.
He said there could be problem in some states, but that could be compensated by other parts of the country.
Shah said the country’s milk production is expected to rise 4-6 per cent this fiscal year from around 250 million tonnes in the previous year.
The NDDB Chairman noted that the growth in milk production annually is in line with rising consumption and asserted that there would not be any issue in meeting this growing demand for dairy products over the next 10-15 years.
Shah said the Government has taken various measures to boost milk production through improvement of animal health and their productivity. More dairy cooperative societies are being formed across the country.
Last month, Mother Dairy had said the “revision in prices has been necessitated in view of the sustained increase in farmer procurement prices, of around 6 per cent over the past one year, despite continued efforts to limit the impact on consumers”.
Mother Dairy had said the price revision represents only a partial pass through of increased costs. It passes on nearly 75-80 per cent of its milk sales realisation to farmers.
