Ajablal Yadav, general manager of the state-owned dairy producer, said consumers will now have to pay Rs 20 per packet (500 ml) for standard milk available in blue pack and Rs 23 per packet for milk with high amount of fat and cream. [break]
“We were forced to take the difficult decision of raising the prices as we are bound to pay high price to the farmers,” Yadav told myrepublica.com on Friday.
He further added that decreasing milk production amid strong competition among dairy producers was the other factor behind the price hike. “Other factors like long load-shedding hours, increasing operation cost and increase in the price of machineries have also contributed to the price hike,” Yadav said.
The establishment of high-capacity dairy firm in Chitwan also forced DDC to review the prices as the firm has been offering attractive prices to the farmers.
Farmers at present are getting Rs 25 to Rs 40 per liter of milk depending on fat and Solid Not Fat (SNF) in the milk.
Dairy industries across the country have been facing shortage of milk even during this high production season and this has spurred unhealthy competition in the industry.
Though DDC has the capacity to process 300,000 liters of milk a day, it has so far been able to collect only 200,000 liters of milk from the farmers. Kathmandu Valley alone consumes about 150,000 liters milk per day.
Related story
Dairy farmers to get Rs 4.14 per liter from DDC’s hiked price
-1200x560-1779450784.webp)
