BAMUL chief D K Suresh leads delegation to state leadership, citing soaring fodder expenses, drought stress, and procurement parity with neighboring states.
Cooperative milk producers’ unions across Karnataka have formally petitioned the state government to raise both procurement payouts and retail prices for Nandini milk by ₹8 to ₹10 per litre. As reported by ThePrint via Press Trust of India (PTI), a high-level delegation representing regional milk unions met at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru to submit their demands. The delegation warned that severe input cost inflation, combined with consecutive periods of drought and fodder deficits, has created an unsustainable financial burden for dairy farmers across the state.
Leading the delegation, D K Suresh, Chairman of the Bangalore Urban, Rural & Ramanagara District Co-Operative Milk Producers Societies Union Limited (BAMUL), outlined the escalating cost structure confronting primary producers. Suresh emphasized that farm-level operational expenditures—specifically commercial cattle feed, dry and green fodder, veterinary care, medicines, and labor—have risen sharply. He pointed out that while cooperative and private dairies across neighboring states have steadily adjusted consumer prices upward to reflect real inflation, Karnataka’s unions have absorbed cost pressures without revising consumer rates for roughly a year and a half to shield households.
The union leadership presented comparative procurement and retail benchmark data to illustrate Karnataka’s widening disadvantage. Currently, Karnataka’s milk unions procure toned milk from dairy farmers at approximately ₹35 per litre. In contrast, neighboring state federations and dairies pay significantly higher procurement rates: ₹41.50 per litre in Andhra Pradesh, ₹41.80 in Kerala, ₹41 in Maharashtra, and ₹42.24 in Tamil Nadu. Suresh noted that because Karnataka’s retail maximum retail price (MRP) sits roughly ₹12 per litre lower than in adjacent states, local unions face aggressive procurement competition from out-of-state private dairies buying up local raw milk.
In response to the delegation’s representations, state leadership directed administrative officials and the Animal Husbandry department to compile comprehensive economic data before determining a policy response. The review mandates a detailed 10-year trend analysis of cattle feed pricing, verified baseline production costs per litre of milk, district-wise production and sales volumes, and precise procurement metrics across all Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) district member unions. Additionally, the Chief Minister’s Office requested an official comparative matrix detailing procurement pricing, retail consumer slabs, and fat/SNF component compensation structures in competing states.
For the Karnataka dairy sector and the broader southern Indian milkshed, the requested ₹8–10 revision highlights the recurring political challenge of balancing farmer viability against consumer retail price sensitivity. While the Karnataka Milk Federation’s Nandini brand remains a symbol of cooperative affordability, low procurement margins risk driving producer attrition and siphoning milk supplies to aggressive private competitors. As state officials evaluate the comprehensive cost data, the outcome will test the government’s ability to protect dairy farmer incomes without triggering broader urban consumer pushback.
Source: ThePrint / PTI
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