Amul milk is set to get costlier in Ahmedabad and Saurashtra regions of Gujarat by Re 1 to Rs 2 per litre from October 3, 2012. The decision was taken by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) at its board meeting held in Anand today. The rise in fuel and cattle feed costs prompted GCMMF to hike milk prices in Gujarat, the officials claimed.
"Fuel costs have gone up, due to which our transportation costs have increased. Also, cattle feed costs have increased by about 30-40% over the past three months. This is adding pressure on the milk producers, hence the board decided to hike the milk prices from October 3, 2012," informed a senior GCMMF official.
India's largest milk cooperative, GCMMF, plies over 1200 trucks daily for milk procurement. It procures 12.5 million litres of milk daily while sells about 8 million litres per day.
The hike in milk prices will be made effective in Ahmedabad and Saurashtra regions, where GCMMF markets milk under Amul brand. However, GCMMF has no plans to hike milk prices in the metros (New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata) as of now.
The federation has decided to increase prices by Re 1 per litre for five milk variants, while that of 'Amul Gold' will be hiked by Rs 2 per litre, the official informed.
"The dairies and members of federation in other parts of Gujarat will take an independent call on price hike. The hike comes into effect from October 3," GCMMF managing director, R S Sodhi said.
The new milk prices in Saurashtra region and Ahmedabad from October 3 will be Rs 40 per litre for Gold, Rs 36 for Shakti, Rs 29 for Taaza, Rs 33 for Cow milk, Rs 27 for Slim & Trim and Tea Special variety will be priced at Rs 36 a litre.
It may be noted that the prices of full cream milk in metros are now at par with that in Gujarat. Over the past 15 months, GCMMF has hiked milk prices by around 15%.
On the procurement front, GCMMF had recently announced a hike of Rs 10 per kg fat on milk procurement from farmers, taking the payout to Rs 455 per kg.
