MORE MILK TO BE PURCHASED FROM OTHER STATES TO MEET ONAM DEMAND

MORE MILK TO BE PURCHASED FROM OTHER STATES TO MEET ONAM DEMAND

If reports of spiralling vegetables prices are worrying you this Onam season, here's good news for your sweet tooth. The Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (Milma), which has made it a habit to use milk powder to tide over demand, has made all arrangements to ensure that natural milk is available in plenty for your favourite 'palada' and 'pal payasam'. According to Milma chairman P T Gopalakurup, the milk marketing federation will buy over 90 lakh litres of milk from neighbouring states, and make Rs 50 crore in the process. "We have made arrangements to bring milk from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh to meet the demand. We expect sales of milk to almost double during the peak days of the festival. Arrangements have been made to bring more than 90 lakh litres of milk from dairies in these states. We expect our turnover to cross Rs 50 crore during this season," Kurup told TOI. 

Procurement of milk from the domestic market has substantially increased in the last one year, especially after Milma increased the price. Currently, the federation procures eight to 10 lakh litres of milk a day from the domestic market."On an average, our daily demand for milk is 12 to 14 lakh litres. This will touch 20 to 22 lakh litres during the height of the festival season. We will purchase 8.5 lakh litres of milk from Karnataka, 50,000 litres from Andhra Pradesh and 30,000 litres of from Tamil Nadu on a daily basis during the festival. We will not use milk powder," promised Milma marketing managing K G Satheesh Kumar. 

Prof. John Kurakar