Your milk supply likely to be affected from April 1

The raw materials required to process the milk, not reaching the processing units. The industry concern aggravates.  

Mumbai: With the lockdown period now extended to 21-days that is up to April 14 to curb the spread of Covid-19 infection. The urban areas of Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and Pune namely are soon likely to face the shortage of milk and other essential commodities. The milk processing dairies like Mahanand, Gokul, Amul, Mother Dairy and others complained about facing the shortage of raw materials to process the milk. Thus, it will affect the supply of milk after April 1. 

“Milk processing and packaging need raw material like poly film, furnace oil, coal, and glass bottles to continue the processing and packaging. We have stock of 7-8 days processing, and if it is not streamlined thereafter it will affect the supply of milk and milk products,” confirmed the senior official, from a renowned milk processing unit in the state, requesting anonymity.  

The Mumbai and Pune milk daily milk consumption is 55lakh and 30 lakh liters per day, respectively. While Kolhapur city’s daily consumption is 3lakh liters. To process the required milk, the milk processing units need coal and above raw materials which is presently stuck at different locations due to the lockdown. 

“Our 10-15 coal trucks are stuck at Ratnagiri port. If they don’t reach Kolhapur soon, then by month-end the milk processing will stop. Similarly, the cattle raw material like soya bean, groundnut cake, rice, and wheat husk arriving from other states is must for the cattle survival,” said D.V. Ghanekar, Managing Director, Gokul Milk, that supplies over 7.5 lakh liters, and 3 lakhs liters of milk supply to Mumbai and Pune daily. 

The industry stakeholders demanded industry-specific planning from the government to ensure the smooth supply of essential commodities like milk. “The government should now undertake industry-specific planning so that the essential services like milk, vegetables, and grains are not affected. They should ensure that the requisite raw material to run this industry also remains uninterrupted,” added Ghanekar.  

On the other hand, the consumer bodies accepted that there is certainly a communication gap between the state executive and enforcement agencies at a local level. “There could be panic among citizens if the essential services and commodities don’t reach the end-user. To ensure that they remain uninterrupted the state should ensure that district, city, village and other local-level authorities and police are involved and instructed properly. The state government should ensure stringent measures to curb black marketing,” said Shirish Deshpande, chairman of Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP). – By Prajakta Chavan