Ram Kumar Khadka, president of Private Dairies´ Association, said they decided to raise milk prices in line with the decision of DDC. “We decided to raise milk prices as we have been purchasing milk from the farmers at the same price the DDC is offering,” Khadka said. [break]
As per the fresh price revision, price of a standard blue packet milk has been set at Rs 20 per packet (500 ml), while the green packet with more amount of fat will cost Rs 23 per packet.
Dairy firms have maintained that they were forced to hike milk price as the have been paying higher price to farmers. They also said prolonged load-shedding hours, increasing operation cost and the increase in the price of inputs have also contributed to the price hike.
The establishment of high capacity dairy firm in Chitwan has forced dairy firms to pay high price to farmers at a time when they were running through supply deficit. Shortage of milk even during this peak production season has spurred unhealthy competition amongst dairy firms.
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