Fodder cost eats up dairy’s sop for milk suppliers

“In May,our board of directors decided to offer a rupee extra for cow milk. We have been paying the extra amount since June,” Ramesh Bhujbal,chairman of the dairy said.

Each of the 900 milk producers’ societies that supply milk to Katraj Dairy has a membership of 100-150 producers. The hike has put an additional burden of approximately Rs 1.25 lakh to Rs 1.40 lakh on the dairy per day. Katraj MD Vivek Kshirsagar said,“About 1.20 lakh litre of cow’s milk is supplied to our dairy every day. In case of buffalo milk,it is not more than 15,000 litre a day. The hike has put an extra burden of around Rs 40 lakh a month on us.”

Babanrao Nivangune,a farmer from Panshet who supplies milk to Katraj under Ambi Milk Co-operative Society,said,“The extra rupee is definitely a help. I supply nearly 125 litre of milk every day,which means Rs 125 extra income daily. However,fodder is getting dearer and unless its price is brought down,we cannot really enjoy the extra amount offered by the dairy,” he said.

Dairy officials said the one-rupee-hike was possible because of the stable financial condition of the dairy. “Besides,we started cutting unnecessary expenses and keeping a control over purchase of raw material. These factors helped us in giving the extra money to suppliers,” said Bhujbal.