Amul hiked milk prices by ₹2/litre across all variants in all markets on Friday. This is the second such increase by the market leader in the current calendar year. Earlier, it had hiked prices in late January.
As a result of the latest hike, toned milk Amul Taaza will now cost ₹38 a litre, while the price of Amul Gold (full cream milk) will now be ₹48/litre. Amul Diamond, the premium quality milk, will now cost ₹50/litre.
RS Sodhi, Managing Director, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that owns the brand Amul, attributed the latest hike in prices to the increased cost of production. “There has been a substantial increase in cattle feed and labour costs and this has led to increase in cost of milk production,” he said.
Prices of all other Amul products will see a commensurate rise soon, Sodhi said. Amul had raised the prices of milk in Gujarat and Mumbai last week.
Sodhi said milk demand during summer has increased by about 20 lakh litres a day, whereas procurement has slowed a tad. Amul sells about one crore litre of packaged milk a day.
Industry sources said the latest price hike by Amul would prompt other players to follow suit. “Mother Dairy aims in striking a balance between consumer interest and producers’ interest. Regarding Delhi NCR, we are keeping a close watch on the procurement prices and other input costs that finally impacts the consumer price,” a Mother Dairy spokesperson said.