As ‘Nandini’ enters Maha, milk produce by state lowest ever

Even as new milk brand “Nandini” makes inroads into Maharashtra from neighbouring Karnataka, state-owned milk companies, Aarey and Mahananda, are struggling to sustain themselves.

Figures obtained from the dairy development department indicate the lowest milk production ever by state-owned milk companies. At 98.39 lakh litres per day, Maharashtra stood at seventh position in terms of milk production across the country in 2016. However, the share of state-owned companies was only 0.72 lakh litre when compared to that of cooperatives and private dairies. “At present, there are only 19 ongoing schemes for milk production in the state while 13 have closed down. The capacity of milk production of these ongoing schemes is up to 21.3 lakh litres per day but the actual production is below 3 lakh litres,” according to statistics. Cooperatives’ share of milk production is 40.62 lakh litres per day while that of private dairies is 57.05 lakh litres, as per data.

Animal husbandry and dairy development minister Mahadev Jankar had said he would bring all milk brands under Aarey to fight brands like Amul. However, currently, Aarey is incurring losses due to corruption and dominance of private brands. “We have given government lands to private dairies and realised that our own Aarey brand is now incurring losses. The farmers prefer giving milk to private brands and we are forced to buy excess milk at a very low cost. On the other hand, Amul has been capturing our market. Hence, we have decided to introduce Aarey as the single brand in the market and ask all other brands to consolidate with it,” he said.

However, Mahananda employee unions pointed at the malfunctioning of the dairy and questioned the government’s apathy towards it. “There is no discipline in getting milk into the dairy. The production starts even at 3 am or 4 am. Mahananda was producing 6.5 lakh litres of milk 10 years ago. However, today, production has come down to 1.80 litres,” said Ajay Jadhav, secretary, Mahananda Doodh Vahtuk Sanghatana