Dairy farmers find the going tough as procurement stopped

After the Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, stopped the milk procurement due to excess stock with them, the Dairy farmers are bearing the brunt amid the COVID-19 lockdown. Sources said around 80,000 litres of milk was disposed of as the business came down following the lockdown.

Kozhikode (Kerala): Dairy farmers in Kerala are bearing the brunt of the 21-day-lockdown imposed to prevent the spread of pandemic COVID-19, as the Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, better known as MILMA, stopped milk procurement on Wednesday due to excess stock with them.

The decision was following the neighbouring Tamil Nadu deciding to halt the procurement of milk from Kerala as they have enough and extra stock following the lockdown.

Kerala Minister of Animal husbandry and Dairy Development K Raju told reporters that talks have been held with dairy units in Tamil Nadu to send the excess milk from Kerala to manufacture milk powder.

"We are holding discussions with many companies in Tamil Nadu. The discussion is to convert excess milk in the state to manufacture milk powder in the factories there. If they agree to it, we will send milk there," Raju said.

K S Mani, chairman of Malabar Regional Co-operative Milk Producers Union (MRCMPU), the north Kerala arm of MILMA, said they were forced to stop milk procurement on Wednesday due to excess of stock with them.

"We have been procuring the maximum and sharing the excess with our Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram MILMA dairies. But the lockdown had witnessed a sharp fall in sales across the state to as low as 45-50 per cent.

This led to surplus milk remaining with us as other dairies were not in need of our excess milk," he said.

He also said Tamil Nadu decided not to accept milk from Kerala as they themselves have enough and extra stock.

"Hence we were forced to stop procuring today (Wednesday). And we have decided to procure milk in the morning only, which is about 65 per cent, henceforth. Usual procurement of milk in the evenings has been temporarily stopped," Mani said.

The MRCMPU procures about six lakh litres of milk every day and with procurement limited to morning only, the milk they collected would be about four lakh litres from Thursday.

"I have been talking to the Minister and the Chief Ministers office about a possible solution in utilising the excess stock we will have...This milk, about two lakh litres every day, could well be distributed among the destitute and the homeless in relief camps and the guest workers through community kitchens," he added.

The dairy farmers in Palakkad were seen dumping milk into pits as they lacked the facility to store the excess produce.

Sources said around 80,000 litres of milk was disposed of as the business came down following the lockdown. (PTI)