Southern States - Karnataka   

Campaign to increase sale of milk by June

By Raviprasad Kamila

CHITRADURGA JAN. 3. The cooperative milk producers' society unions in the country and the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) are planning to start a campaign to increase sale of milk and its by-products produced by the cooperative unions to counter the competition from private milk producers and also to create market for excess milk procured by cooperative unions.

The joint venture is likely to start by June.

The campaign may target products of some private milk producers who allegedly add derivatives and preservatives to boost their sales.

Besides advertisements in the electronic and print media, the campaign will press marketing executives into the field to convince customers to use milk produced by cooperative unions.

Speaking to The Hindu here on Thursday, D.Srinath, Managing Director, Shimoga Cooperative Milk Union Ltd., which covers Shimoga, Chitradurga and Davangere districts, said that the union authorities who grew suspicious over the claim of a private milk producer that the milk produced by him/firm was so thick and that it could be preserved for hours without being kept in a refrigerator, got a sample tested in a government laboratory.

The analysis reportedly revealed that it contained starch. The authorities after obtaining the relevant records and a report on it made an announcement informing the people about it.

Several people also told the union authorities over phone that foul smell emanated from the curd made out of that milk.

People realised the reason for this only after the union made the laboratory analysis public, he claimed.

Mr. Srinath said that such private milk producers were clever to escape punishment under in the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act.

They added new derivatives and preservatives that were not listed as harmful or banned under the Act. Hence, the authorities concerned and the Deputy Commissioners could not seize their milk under the Act.

Adulteration could be curbed effectively once the newderivatives and preservatives were included in the Act, he said.

He said that normal un-boiled milk got spoilt if kept in the open for certain hours. It was the rule of Nature. But milk produced by some of private producers never got spoilt even if kept in the open for several hours.

It meant that the product was adulterated. He wondered how it could remain intact for hours against the rule of Nature.

Clean milk

He said that the union was also concentrating on clean milk production, i.e., decreasing the quantity of bacteria in milk, as being done in European countries. Until now fat content was being taken into account to assess the quality of milk.

As per international standard the quality of milk was considered to be good if it contained less bacteria.

Mr. Srinath said that as per an estimate the quantity of bacteria during milching would range from 2,000 per ml to 3,000 per ml.

This went up from 28 lakhs to 78 lakhs per ml when it reached the chilling plant. After pasturisation, the quantity of bacteria would come down to 50,000 per ml per packet. The union was planning to bring it down further by 2005.

He said that the union had set a target of procuring two lakhs litres of milk per day by 2005.

It had also set a target of selling 1.90 lakhs litres per day by that year. But due to excess production the quantity of milk it procured was the same now (two lakhs litres), which was two years ahead of schedule.

But the sale now stood at 1.15 lakhs litres a day. Thus nearly one lakh litres of milk remained unsold per day.

Mr. Srinath said that the union was sending excess milk to Kollahpur in Maharashtra for making by-products such as milk powder, butter and others.

Thus it was incurring an additional charge of Rs.3.25 per litre as transportation and conversion cost, he added.

The per capita consumption of milk per person at present had been estimated at 200 ml against the standard of 250 ml per person, he said.

He said that there was less demand for the by-products of milk in the areas covered by the union.

A case in point was that of the sale of ``peda,'' which was only 60 kg per day. The preparation of "peda" required about 450 litres of milk. It sold about five kg of ``paneer'' per month, he said.

Considering the excess milk production, the union had stopped the formation of new cooperative societies for now, he said.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Southern States

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• 'Progress in science should benefit poor'
• Counter Opposition campaign: PM
• `SMEs should upgrade technology'
• `Farmers confused over interest waiver'
• No new cases of polio in South: Expert
• Literary awards announced
• Govt. writes to Centre on SEZ in Mangalore
• Confusion over shifting of market
• Women farmers told to become self-reliant
• Unscheduled power cut causing hardship
• Ashraya houses: Action in 15 days
• Campaign to increase sale of milk by June

Copyright © 2003, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu