Milk producers demand hike in procurement price

Members of the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers’ Association urged the State government to hike the milk procurement price by ₹ 10 a litre.

Staging a demonstration near the Collectorate here on Tuesday, they said that the government, with an objective to step up sales of the Aavin milk and give a relief to the consumers, had reduced the sale price of milk by ₹ 3 a litre. Due to this move, the Aavin had suffered a loss of ₹ 270 crore across the State

After the private companies hiked the procurement price, a majority of the milk producers were drawn towards them. As a result, milk procurement at Aavin had dwindled from 40 lakh litres to 28 lakh litres a day in Tamil Nadu. They also claimed that the last hike was effected in 2019. Considering the rise in expenditure, the government should hike the procurement price of milk by at least ₹ 10 a litre.

They urged the government to immediately implement the order passed by the Madras High Court Bench in Madurai to prevent theft in Aavin, check pilferage without any delay. The order was issued on August 2017 and delay may encourage only the violators.

The demonstration was presided by U Arunachalam. A. Subbiah, K Mohamed Ali and M Shankar and other office-bearers spoke.