Dairy major and 'Amul' marketer, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), on Monday announced a price hike of Rs 2 per litre for all its six consumer milk brands being sold in all major markets nationally.

Announcing the hike, the Federation said the revised milk prices will be effective from May 21 in Delhi NCR, Gujarat, West Bengal, Kolkata, Uttaranchal and Maharashtra, among others.

However, the dairy major also clarified that there will be no change in cow milk prices in the Gujarat market.

The MRP of a 500 ml pack of Amul Gold, Amul Shakti, Amul Taza and Amul Diamond variety in the Ahmedabad market will be revised upwards to Rs 27, Rs 25, Rs 21 and Rs 28 respectively.

RS Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF, said the consumer prices of of milk were last revised two years ago in March 2017. Sodhi attributed the hike in consumer milk prices to a sustained increase in cattle feed prices.

"Over the past one year, there has been a major increase in prices of major cattle feed ingredients such as de-oiled rice bran by 61 per cent, rice polish fine by 22 per cent, molasses by 82 per cent and maize by 63 per cent, which has resulted in an increase in the cattle feed price by over 15 per cent," he said in a statement.

"Similarly, the rate of green fodder has also seen a steep hike of more than 100 per cent this summer," it added.

The Federation found it necessary to hike consumer milk prices to keep milk producers motivated and sustain their livelihood. "Considering the increase in the cost of milk production, all member milk unions of Gujarat have increased the milk purchase price by a minimum of Rs 30-50 per kg fat (5-8 per cent) over the past few months. This will motivate our milk producers to keep inducting new animals and to keep producing milk and support their livelihood," the statement said.

"A cooperative, Amul passes on almost 80 paise of every rupee paid by consumers to the milk producers," Sodhi stated.

Citing adverse conditions in the international and national dairy market over the past two years, GCMMF said there has been a steep decline in the price of commodities such as Skimmed Milk Powder (SMP), Whole Milk Powder (WMP) and butter oil.

"This had resulted in a decline in the producer prices of milk across India, leading to an adverse impact on milk producers. However, the milk co-opertives of Gujarat continued to pay remunerative prices to its producers and the average final price of milk paid to producers has increased from Rs 710 per kg fat in 2017-18 to Rs 730 per kg fat in 2018-19," said Sodhi, explaining the need for the hike in consumer milk prices.

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