MillenniumPost
Bengal

Govt hikes support price to benefit milk farmers

Kolkata: The state government has increased the support price of purchasing milk from the milk farmers in the state. The support price has been increased by Rs 4, with the price going up from Rs 27 to Rs 31 per litre.

"The milk farmers have been pressing for the rise in purchase price for more than two months. I had raised the matter with the state government immediately and had written a letter. There were deliberations and with effect from Wednesday, the support price of milk has been raised, much to the delight of the farmers," said Parash Dutta, chairman of West Bengal Cooperative Milk Producers' Organisation.

The milk farmers had been selling their produce to other branded milk companies, as they were paying them at the rate of Rs 31-32 per litre, which was higher than the rate of the state government, which purchases milk from the farmers and after processing, sells it under the Mother Dairy brand.

The Mother Dairy outlets in the state have been facing a serious dearth in supply of milk because of this low support price. They have been getting half or even less than the quantity of packaged milk that they used to receive two to three months ago.

"We are hopeful that more than 65,000 milk farmers will be benefitted because of the government's decision to increase the support price and will now be selling their produce to the state," Dutta added.

Interestingly, the purchase price of milk was Rs 25 earlier and Rs 2 was paid as subsidy, taking the effective price to Rs 27. Now, the government will pay Rs 6 as subsidy, which will push the price to Rs 31.

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