Kerala, which needs 16 lakh litres per day (LLPD) of milk for consumption during Onam , may tap the cows in Karnataka this season. MILMA, the state’s apex dairy co-operative, is in price parleys in Bengaluru with the dairies in Karnataka this week to ensure procurement contracts during the second week of September.
With Aavin, the lead dairy co-operative of neigbouring Tamil Nadu, hiking its milk price by `6 per litre last week, Kerala has now only Karnataka in the logistic vicinity to feed its festival season milk appetite.
“Had it not been hit by floods and landslides for the second year in a row, Kerala would have become self-sufficient in milk production. The spiraling price of cattle fodder is also turning out to be a deterrent,” Kallada Ramesh, chairman, (Thiruvanthapuram region), MILMA, told FE.
The Nandini brand of Karnataka Co-operative Milk Producers Federation sells about 35 LLPD and the rest of the dairy players sell about 10 LLPD milk. In 2018-2019, KMF had procured as much as 72.6 LLPD of milk. Given the surplus sales, Nandini brand can easily offer the lowest milk price in the country.
However, it is only due to the seasonal demand spurt that Nandini’s milk glut has been emerging as the solution for MILMA’s procurement issue. Kerala’s average milk demand is only 13.5 LLPD.
As per the statistics tabled before the state assembly, the devastating floods of 2018 August had killed 5,162 milch cows, 1,228 heifers, 5,166 calves and 541 buffaloes, reducing MILMA’s milk procurement to 9.1 LLPD at one point.
“But, even after the flood setback of 2018, Kerala’s dairy sector had been able to improve its milk procurement from 11.5 LLPD to 13 LLPD by January 2019,” PA Balan, chairman, MILMA, had said, earlier this year. The quick recovery had been due to the mushrooming of large size dairy farms. Balan had expressed confidence on 100% milk self-sufficiency, before the second spell of rain havoc hit in 2019 August. The toll on dairy sector this month is yet to be estimated.