CHANDIGARH – Burning a hole in the common man’s pocket, milk prices went up by Rs 2 per litre across the state this week. Dairy farmers claim they are forced to raise the prices because of the spiralling prices of cattlefeed and fodder.
Milk will now be available between Rs 38 and Rs 40 per litre. Jaswinder Singh, general secretary, Punjab Livestock Farmers’ Association, said they were facing huge losses on account of the soaring prices of mustard, cottonseed, rice bran cakes and fodder.
He said mustard cakes that were sold for Rs 1200-Rs 1300 per quintal until two months ago were now available at Rs 2,200 per quintal. The price of cottonseed cake had gone up to Rs 1,800 per quintal from Rs 1,150.
Similarly, the cost of rice bran cake had more than doubled to Rs 900 in a few months. Green fodder prices had gone up too. “The milk yield decreases during the summers and the cattle needs to be provided extra nutrition. This raises the input costs,” explained Jaswinder. Dairy farmers in Punjab produce 260 lakh litres of milk everyday, according to Inderjit Singh, Director, Dairy Development. This is the second time in the last six months that milk prices have been revised. Earlier this year, the farmers had hiked the milk price by Re 1 per litre.
