A milk price hike by Amul is off the cards in the near future, says GCMMFMD. News Jani

The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), a cooperative that markets milk under the Amul brand, has no plans to increase milk prices in the country in the near future. RS Sodhi, Managing Director (MD) of the organization said this.

GCMMF mainly sells milk in Gujarat, Delhi-NCR, West Bengal and Mumbai markets. This cooperative organization sells more than 150 lakh liters of milk per day, out of which about 40 lakh liters of milk is sold in Delhi-NCR.

Earlier this week, Mother Dairy had hiked the prices of full cream milk by Rs 1 per liter and token milk by Rs 2 per liter in the Delhi-NCR market, citing price hikes.

Asked if the GCMMF had any plans to raise milk prices after Mother Dairy hiked milk prices, Sodhi said, “There are no plans in the near future.”

He added that costs have not increased much since the last retail price hike in October.

In mid-October, the GCMMF increased the prices of Amul Gold (full cream) and buffalo milk by Rs 2 per litre. This growth has occurred in all other markets, except for electoral Gujarat. Assembly elections will be held in Gujarat in early December.

After this increase in price, the price of Amul Gold has increased from Rs.61 to Rs.63 per liter while the price of buffalo milk has increased from Rs.63 to Rs.65 per liter.

GCMMF has hiked milk prices three times this year, while Mother Dairy has done so four times.

Mother Dairy is one of the leading milk suppliers in Delhi-NCR with a sales volume of 3 million liters per day.

The rise in milk prices has put pressure on the country’s budget at a time when food inflation is already at high levels.

Mother Dairy attributed the price hike to the increase in the cost of procuring raw milk from dairy farmers.

“This year, the entire dairy industry is seeing a huge gap between the demand and supply of milk,” its spokesman said.

The company said availability of raw milk has been affected due to increase in cattle feed prices and raw milk prices are under pressure due to erratic monsoon.

India, the largest milk producing country in the world, produces about 210 million tonnes of milk annually.