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Milma firm on increasing milk price
| Dairy Minister says hike only after carefully studying the proposal |
Milma director board holds meeting in Thrissur
Proposal to procure milk powder from Maharashtra
Milma chairman P.T. Gopala Kurup
Thrissur: A meeting of the director board of the Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Milma) held here on Thursday decided to stick to its earlier proposal to the government to increase the price of milk by Rs.3 a litre.
A Milma board meeting held on December 31, 2007, had proposed the Rs.3 hike.
Milma chairman P.T. Gopala Kurup told mediapersons here that the federation would discuss the proposed hike with Dairy Development Minister C. Divakaran in Thiruvananthapuram on Friday.
“Dairy farmers will get Rs.2.25 a litre of the proposed hike. Primary cooperatives will get 5 paise a litre, the Dairy Farmers’ Welfare Board 6 paise a litre and agencies 12 paise a litre of the proposed hike. Government officials who took part in the Milma board meeting on Thursday too favoured the proposed hike.”
Mr. Gopala Kurup said a scheme to procure milk powder from Maharashtra was being discussed.
“This scheme will incur additional expenses of Rs.4 a litre. If the government is ready to bear these expenses, Milma can go ahead with the scheme,” he said.
T.P. Marcos, chairman of the Ernakulam Regional Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union; Kallada Ramesh, chairman of the Thiruvananthapuram union of Milma; Gopinatha Pillai of Malabar union; and Sanjeeb Kumar Patjoshi, managing director of Milma; took part in the board meeting.
Earlier, inaugurating cold-storage units of Milma at Padiyur, Mr. Divakaran said the government would consider the milk price hike only after carefully studying the proposals of Milma. “The government is against any arbitrary hike. Increase, if any, should be systematic.”
The Minister said that the State government was planning to launch a scheme to boost production of cattle feed.
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