Milk scarcity affecting some cooperatives, shops in Bengaluru

Some cooperatives and milk parlours in the city seem to be facing a shortage of milk. A Nandini milk parlour owner in the city who gets Mother Dairy products, says he got no milk supply on February 28. Supply has resumed but shortage persists.

A source at Mother Dairy confirmed that a shortage exists. "If my requirement is 1,500 litres per day, the agent is able to supply only around 1,000 litres. Many shop owners are facing the same issue from Mother Dairy," he says.

Narasimha Murthy, who heads the Bangalore Milk Union Ltd (BAMUL), says they are facing a shortage in milk collected from dairy farmers. He says the union now collects 13 lakh litres of milk daily, and that they are short by one lakh litres. "We do manage supply. But if an agent asks for 100 litres, I can give only 80 litres. We have a shortage of ghee also."

Murthy attributes the shortage to farmers increasingly selling off their cattle as they are unhappy with KMF's procurement price. "As this trend continues, shortage will worsen in the coming days," he said.

Anand, an agent who procures 5,000-6,000 litres of milk daily from BAMUL and supplies it to milk parlours and hotels in Palace Guttahalli, says he is short by about 400 litres of milk daily now.

Shivanna, another BAMUL agent who supplies in Chamarajpet, says he faces shortage sometimes but makes up for it by procuring from other unions. "Generally there is milk shortage during summer, and it's the same this year. There is also a technical problem with BAMUL's computer systems, which causes delay in supply," he says. BAMUL had acknowledged the technical issue and agreed to resolve it in a couple of days.

However, not all unions are complaining. Harish Kumar, Marketing Manager at Mandya milk union that supplies to parts of Bengaluru, says, "Our daily demand from agents in Bengaluru is around 2.3 lakh litres per day, and we are meeting this."

B C Satish, MD at Karnataka Milk Federation, attributes the shortage to the routine 'lean season' of February-March in Karnataka. He says yield will increase with rains. While BAMUL had written to KMF to resolve farmers' concerns, Satish says farmers are not quitting in large numbers.

According to him, this financial year overall, KMF saw an average milk shortage of two per cent.

This would mean that the average yield would reduce from 84-85 lakh litres per day to around 76 lakh litres daily. "This financial year, across India there was a milk shortage of 7-8 per cent due to various reasons like Lumpy Skin Disease among cattle. Karnataka additionally had strong rains that reduced yield, but we have been able to limit shortage to 2 per cent," he says.