Dairy shops close to protest against official milk rate

Retailers say they cannot sell milk bought at Rs93.77 per litre at Rs85 per litre

KARACHI: The failure of authorities to handle the milk crisis deprived on Wednesday the residents of Karachi of milk. Dairy shop owners closed their shutters in protest and refused to sell milk at the official rate of Rs85 per litre fixed by the commissioner's office, claiming that wholesalers have been selling milk at Rs93.77 per litre.

Due to the strike, customers were seen waiting helplessly outside the closed shops hoping for the strike to be called off so that they could buy milk.

"We are sorry for our customers but we can't sell milk at Rs85 per litre after buying it at around Rs95 per litre to please the commissioner's office," said a milk shop owner in the Saddar area.  According to him, it was better not to sell milk at all rather than making loss of Rs10 per litre.

He maintained that the selling rate fixed by the commissioner's office was Rs74.5 per litre for dairy farmers, Rs79 for wholesalers and Rs85 for retailers but currently milk was being sold by the wholesalers to retailers at Rs93.77 per litre, whereas, the dairy farmers were selling milk to the wholesalers at Rs86.27 per litre.



For the past many months, all the stakeholders, especially the dairy farmers, have been demanding that the rates of fresh milk be revised and fixed according to the cost of production. However, the commissioner has not been able to resolve the issue.

A resident of Defence Housing Authority, Nawaz, said the commissioner should have fixed a new price after holding discussions with all the stakeholders rather than creating a situation where the city's residents, especially children, would suffer. "Everyone is suffering due to wrong decisions by the government. It's better to buy a basic necessity like milk at expensive rates rather than not getting it at all."

Another buyer of milk, Adnan Rehmat, criticised the government for taking decisions that could not be implemented. If the sugar industry can get billions in subsidies, why can dairy farmers not get similar subsidies? he questioned.

Rehmat demanded that the government withdraw the subsidy that is being provided to sugar manufacturers and transfer it to milk producers so that people could buy milk at cheaper rates.



President of a dairy farmers' association, Shakir Umar Gujjar commented that there were nine associations of dairy farmers and due to the government's mismanagement, none could enforce its decisions on dairy famers. He, however, added that the associations were trying to control the situation and sell milk on official rates as a petition regarding the mechanism to ascertain milk price was being heard in court.

All Karachi Milk Retailers Association office bearer Hafiz Nisar Gaddi told The Express Tribune that the wholesalers were selling milk to retailers at Rs94 per litre than the official rate of Rs79 per litre fixed by the Karachi commissioner. He maintained that the retailers would not resume selling milk unless wholesalers sold milk at the official rate.

When contacted, Karachi Commissioner Ejaz Ahmed Khan did not comment on the issue. "I will be able to comment on the matter after I meet all the stakeholders," he said.