Jan 21, 2020
Amul has reprimanded the proposal designed by the IICMA-CII to import 50,000 tons of skimmed milk powder (SMP) at zero duty.
The dairy giant said that this step will hurt the dairy farmers and strongly objected the views and fear expressed by private players and ice-cream manufacturers of shortage of milk in India. R.S. Sodhi, MD, Amul brand, admonished that the industry is doing it for their own benefits as they want cheap raw material and is not in the interest of the farmers or consumers.
Sodhi reflected his view in a letter addressed to Pushpa Subramanyam, secretary, Ministry of Food Processing.
Against IICMA proposal, Sodhi said that imports of any quantity are detrimental to the domestic milk producers, in the short and long run. “Price fell in domestic market for more than one year after we imported 80,000 tons SMP at zero duty during 2011-12,” he said.
IICMA-CII has proposed duty free import as the price of SMP increased from 150/kg to 280-330 per kg, compared to last year.
In summer, when milk production drops, the dairy manufacture liquid milk and other products by diluting milk powder. Ten tons of SMP are used to make one lakh litre of milk.
According to Sodhi, historically at the start of any flush season, the country has the lowest stock of milk powder which slowly starts building up with onset of winter and reaches its peak by April. During May to August, this powder gets consumed and by June the flush season begins from southern India and stocks start getting built up.
He said that, last year, when they got cheap SMP, none of the private players passed on any price benefits to consumers by reducing prices of ice-cream or dairy products and left the milk producers at the mercy of co-operatives which were under huge stress of large inventory of SMP. It was only with government export incentive of 20% and state governments of Gujarat and Maharashtra (Rs. 50 per Kg on SMP exports), the country was able to export about 60,000 tons of SMP.