Talking at an interaction held in Kathmandu on Wednesday, producers of dairy products attributed the surplus to both a steady increase in people entering the business causing a rise in production and a marked fall in consumption after the April-25 earthquake."The demand for milk in the Kathmandu Valley has not bounced back after the earthquake," Ganga Timalsina, general manager of state-owned Dairy Development Corporation (DDC), said. "Dairies have been collecting more milk than what the market wants. We have a surplus of 40,000 liters of milk per day."
Timalsina called on all dairies to unite and work together as soon as possible to manage the surplus. "We have been talking to Patna Dairy (in India) to take some amount from Nepal for a certain period," Timalsina said.
Delivering a presentation on the dairy market in Nepal, Babu Kaji Panta, executive director of Nepal Dairy Development Board (NDDB), said farmers across the country have lately started to worry about 'milk holidays' coming back.
"With their milk not finding sufficient buyers, farmers have been worried that producers might announce milk holidays soon," Panta said.
According to Panta, DDC alone has 850 metric tons of SMP (skimmed milk powder) in stock while dairies under Dairy Industry Association (DIA) have 300 metric tons of SMP in stock. Dairies across the country also have a stock of around 1,550 tons of butter, he said.
Speaking at the event, Pradeep Maharjan, president of DIA, said that dairies under the DIA flag have been using the services of plants in Chitwan to dry their fresh milk into powdered form and increase their shelf lives.
"Due to a lack of capital, private dairies cannot process fresh milk into powdered on their own," Maharjan said, adding: "We should work together to set up some powdered milk plants. If the situation continues for a few more weeks, enforcing of a milk holiday is a sure thing."
Meanwhile, Sumit Kedia, president of Nepal Dairy Association (NDA), urged the government to launch dairy industry-related programs in the upcoming budget. "The dairy industry plays a crucial role in the overall national economy," Kedia said, adding: "The budget for the next fiscal year should launch programs that will help the earthquake-hit dairy industry revive quickly."
Kedia says that around 40,000 buffalos and cows died across the country in the April-25 earthquake.
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