Goa Dairy seeks state help for turnaround

Goa Dairy, which has run into trouble lately, is now seeking intervention from the state government to improve its functioning.

The Registrar of Co-operative Societies visited the Goa Dairy plant in Ponda last week and held a meeting with its board of directors. The state government has stepped in as sales of Goa Dairy have dropped in recent times.

The secretary (Co-operative and Development Commissioner), J K Dadoo confirmed with Business Standard that discussions were held.

He added, "They want to enhance the milk production and regularise Goa Dairy's milk supply. More rounds of discussions in this regard will be held soon."

Since the hike in milk prices early this year from Rs 15.50 to Rs 16.50 per litre, sales of Goa Dairy dropped by 15,000 liters per day. Earlier it sold 80,000 litres per day. "The sales dropped as the milk supply had gone down," said Shrikant Naik, Chairperson of Goa Dairy.

One of its prime suppliers""Kollar Milk Union from Karnataka""stopped its supply, after the Karnataka government offered higher prices to farmers.

With a processing capacity of 1,10,000 litres per day, Goa Dairy is now planning to further expand its output. But, if it fails to improve its procurement of milk and increase its marketability, it will not be long before it plunges into losses.

While there have been claims that milk production in Goa has been increasing the fact is that local procurement is not significant. Its collection through co-operatives here is only 39,000 litres per day while it gets 40,000 litres per day from the neighbouring Karnataka and Maharashtra.

Naik, however, said this is a lean period, due to which supply is low at this time. But, the collection from the co-operatives during the peak season reaches 60,000 litres per day. Goa Dairy which dominated the market for the last few years has been engulfed by functional problems.

"Supply of milk by other producers into Goa has greatly increased in the last two years and Goa Dairy has hardly made efforts to improve its functioning or take notice of new players in the markets," official sources said.