rejected access to its massive market over cultural taboos and fears of annual loss to domestic dairy producers.
The impressive growth of ‘s dairy sector, which transformed from a struggling industry to the world’s largest milk producer in less than a decade, became the unexpected focal point of a major trade dispute with the during the administration. ‘s milk production surged by a staggering over the last decade, growing from in – to in –. This monumental growth, representing nearly a quarter of the world’s total milk supply, dictated the collapse of trade negotiations when the demanded access to ’s market.
The primary reason flatly rejected the demand was based on deeply rooted cultural and religious objections, particularly concerning the common agricultural practice of feeding cows animal-based products, such as blood meal or meat scraps. For the large vegetarian population in , this practice renders the resulting product as “non-veg milk,” making it an “unacceptable contamination.” Given that milk holds a sacred status in religious rituals across the country, cultural identity became a non-negotiable factor in the dairy economics dispute. The economic stakes for dairy producers are equally massive. ’s dairy sector forms the backbone of rural livelihoods for over farming and contributes to the national economy. Economists project that unrestricted imports of cheaper, heavily subsidized milk could result in devastating annual losses of close to for domestic producers. With almost of farmers categorized as small or marginal producers, they cannot compete with agricultural giants that received more than in subsidies in .
‘s firm stance is backed by the transformative success of its domestic agribusiness policies and cooperative network. Initiatives like the have led to a bovine productivity jump of between and —the highest growth rate globally. The cooperative model, inspired by , has expanded to include milk federations and , covering over with members.
The government is doubling down on this success with the launch of in , which aims to increase cooperative milk procurement to by –, supported by a budget allocation of for the revised . For the , the dispute was commercial, but for , it represented a clash between market logic and the fundamental principles of cultural identity and food sovereignty. ultimately stood firm, leading to the imposing on exports, though trade has continued to thrive despite the tension.
Source: the full data journalism report on ’s and from .
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