Hyderabad faces price hike in milk

Associations announce increase to Rs108 per litre, defying govt directives

HYDERABAD: After the flour crisis, a spike in the prices of an equally essential commodity - milk - is knocking on Hyderabad's door.

The associations representing the cattle pens and milk retailers have announced an increase from the existing price, between Rs96 to Rs100 per litre, to Rs108 per litre or higher.

The district administration, which was given their request through a letter on January 25, has strictly directed the traders to keep the rates unchanged at Rs96 per litre to avoid facing 'action.' Additional deputy commissioner Liaquat Ali Kalhoro on Monday advised the dairies against buying milk from the local cattle pens if they force them to pay a rate higher than the government's fixed rate.

"We will ban the movement [sale] of milk produced in Hyderabad outside the district," the ADC warned. Dairy cattle pens are currently selling milk to the dairies and retailers at Rs88 to Rs90 per liter, while the latter, after adding their cost and profit, sell the same at between Rs96 to Rs100.

Hyderabad Cattle Farmers Action Committee's Shaukat Ali Jatoi argued that owing to the prevailing inflation in the country, the cost of farming had increased. "It's not possible for us to keep selling our product in loss," he told a press conference on Thursday.

He said the cattle pens had decided that they would charge a wholesale rate of Rs100 from February 1. "If the traders don't pay the new rate, we will start selling milk to the multinational companies," he warned.

Jatoi reiterated the request to the district administration to notify the new price, pointing out the increase in price of fuel, fodder and other expenditures. According to him, the pens produce 600,000 to 700,000 litres of milk each day, and any shortage would create a crisis.

Meanwhile, a meeting of the Retailers Milk Sellers Welfare Association on Wednesday decided to flout the government's restriction and implement from February 1 the new retail price of Rs108 per litre. "If the wholesale price is increased, we will have no choice but to follow suit," said association leader Abdul Rehman Nagori.

"We will padlock the shops in the entire district if the government takes any action," he warned.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 31^st, 2020.