Apprehensions over milk scarcity are spilling over in Kerala after Karnataka decided to choke supply to the state by 50% from Tuesday. A desperate Kerala government is in parleys with Solapur, Kolhapur and Varna dairies in Maharashtra for milk-sourcing.
Kolhapur dairy is one of the few dairies in the country, which usually enjoy round-the-year milk surpluses. For Kerala, this arrangement could pose two fresh problems: one, the extra transport costs would hit heavily on the already cost-pushed Milma’s retail prices by at least 30%. Secondly, since some of the Maharashtra dairies supply buffalo milk alone, risk of quality-loss risk during long transit-time to Kerala is high.
Seasonal fall in milk production has caught up with Karnataka dairies, forcing them to cut milk supply to Kerala. This is the explanation given to Milma (apex body of Kerala dairy co-ops) by Karnataka Milk Federation on Tuesday. Tamil Nadu’s dairy co-op Aavin is also facing production shrink and is unable to sell to Kerala at this juncture. Kerala buys 3 lakh litre milk from Karnataka per day. This will be cut short to 1.5 lakh litres per day from Wednesday. Overall milk off-take in Kerala adds to about 9.5 lakh litres.