Located on the Kerala-Coimbatore border, a milk society that supplies to Kerala has stopped procurement of milk from the farmers in Coimbatore. Six to seven farmers used to supply nearly 150 litres litres a day to the society. Now, they are looking for options to sell the milk.
A milk vendor in Ramanathapuram in Coimbatore is anxious to know when the lockdown will be lifted. He supplies milk to individual households every day and the purchase has reduced. “Many have gone to their home towns because of the lockdown. So there is dip in sales,” he says.
Several private dairies have reduced the procurement price by nearly ₹ 5 a litre, claim some of the farmers here.
Since the lockdown came into force, several milk producers are facing drop in demand as hotels and bakeries are shutdown and a section of retail buyers have gone back to their hometowns.
N. Murugesan, a farmer near Othakalmandapam, says he supplies milk to Aavin and there is no problem in procurement. However, there are challenges in getting fodder for the cattle and in transporting it. “We used to buy fodder from private players too. The rates have almost doubled,” he says.
Milk vendors who used to come to farms and collect milk for sales faced problems for the initial two or three days. Now, they supply to the society, says Tamil Nadu Milk Producers' Welfare Association general secretary M.G. Rajendran.
Aavin used to procure 28 lakh litres across the State. Now, it is more than 30 lakh litres, he says. He urged the milk producers to supply to the societies if they faced challenges in demand.
In Coimbatore, an Aavin official said it is seeing an increase in demand in the district after the lockdown for milk, ghee and butter.
It used to sell 1.42 lakh litres a day and now it is 1.57 lakh litres. Procurement has also increased by 10,000 litres a day. A lot of consumers used to buy milk packets of different brands from the neighbourhood grocery shops.
Since these outlets are open only for a few hours a day, the shop owners have reduced the purchase of milk. Aavin has 800 agents and sales through them has increased, the official said.
