The milk being sold in the market saw a significant reduction in its fat content, from its usual 4.5 percent, after dairies resorted to mixing huge quantities of powdered milk, to boost the supply of milk in this lean season. With the onset of the dry season, the volume of milk collected went down to around 250,000 liters, down from the 500,000 liters of flush seasons.
“How can we produce ghee at this time of milk shortage when we are running a huge deficit of milk?” says Ram Kumar Khadka, president of the private dairy association. “Ghee production has completely stopped, and due to that there will be a shortage in the market for at least a couple of weeks.”
Khadka was talking about the problems faced by the private dairies, but the DDC is also facing the same fate. The DDC, which holds more than 40 percent of dairy market in the country, has had much trouble finding fresh milk because supplies have declined so drastically.
The DDC, which used to collect 150,000 liters of milk per day from farmers, is now collecting only about 75,000 liters.
“We are not in a condition to produce ghee given the meager fat level in our milk which, after all, contains more than 50 percent powdered milk,” says Ajab Lal Yadav, general manager of the DDC. “We have stopped supplying ghee now, and we can´t resume production until the supply of milk improves.” According to him, the DDC, which used to produce 3.5 tons of ghee per day, now only has 70 to 80 tons of ghee in its stock. Altogether, 7.5 tons of ghee used to be produced every day in flush seasons by private dairies, which number in the region of 400, and the DDC against a demand of 4 tons.
To improve the supply in the market, the DDC is preparing to import 200 tons of ghee from India at Rs 170 IC per kg (Rs 272 per kg).
“We will import ghee from India´s Hariyana Food Milks by June,” says Yadav.
But that would only be a temporary solution to the problem. To solve the perennial shortage of milk in the domestic market, the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC) has proposed the importing of 20,000 cows and buffaloes from different countries, including India, China and Pakistan.
The ministry estimates that it will cost Rs 4 billion to implement the proposed National Dairy Campaign, which also includes plans to increase milk production and artificial insemination of milk-producing livestock, among others, says Dr Hari Dahal, spokesperson of the ministry.
To encourage milk production, an agreement has also been signed between the DDC and three banks--Prime Bank, Himalayan Bank, Nabil Bank and Nepal Investment Bank--to extend loans to farmers. Each bank has agreed to provide loans of Rs 100 million to the farmers in districts such as Morang, Sunsari, Ilam, Makawanpur, Bara, Parsa, Sarlahi and Chitwan.
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