State-owned Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) and Chitawon Dairy are importing 30,000 liters and 40,000 liters respectively from India. Other dairies in the country are also running under capacity due to inadequate supply of milk from domestic sources.[break]
Even during the peak milk production season from September to February, big dairies are forced to import fresh milk from Patna to meet the domestic demand. In the past, they used to import milk during the lean season only when the deficit used to peak up to 400,000 to 500,000 liters per day.
“We are compelled to procure 30,000 liters of fresh milk daily from Patna even in this flush season during which supply of domestic fresh milk is supposed to meet the local demand. We will have to increase the imports during the lean season that starts from February,” Siyaram Singh, general manager of DDC, told Republica on Tuesday.
Singh said DDC is planning to encourage farmers to supply more fresh milk by increasing the procurement price. DDC, which enjoys around fifty percent share of dairy market in the country, is also making final preparations to increase the price of dairy products. This will be done to offset the additional cost after the procurement price of fresh milk is hiked.
“We have already formed a team to study and revise the procurement price of fresh milk. The team, which is now visiting Patna, will study local market conditions as well before recommending the procurement price to DDC,” Singh said.
Sujal Dairy, a leading Pokhara-based dairy, is also facing a deficit of about 40,000 liters a day for its plant with capacity of 100,000 liters. “We are hardly collecting 60,000 liters of fresh milk from the domestic market though we need 100,000 liters to run our plant at full capacity,” said Niranjan Shrestha, Executive Director of Sujal Dairy.
Despite deepening shortage of fresh milk, Sujal, which imported milk from Patna previously, is making do with the domestic supplies alone due to lengthy procurement process.
Similarly, Chitawon Dairy based in Chitwan, is procuring around 40,000 liters of fresh milk per day from India to back up domestic supply. Its plant can process 150,000 liters of fresh milk per day. The dairy is receiving 80,000 liters of fresh milk from domestic sources.
Even small and medium-sized dairies are not immune to the ongoing milk deficit in the market.
“We are facing short supplies of milk leading to processing of only 8,000 liters of milk per day against an installed capacity of 20,000 liters. Other diaries are facing similar situation, said Saroj Pandey, proprietor of capital-based Modern Dairy.
Dairy producers said supply of fresh milk from domestic sources stands at around 300,000 liters per day against a demand of 800,000 liters across the country.
Amid worsening deficit of milk in the domestic market, the government had request India to sell 10,000 heads of milking cows to Nepal, during the recently concluded Inter-governmental Committee (IGC) - commerce secretary level meeting - in New Delhi.
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