With the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) not responding to Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation's (KCMMF) requests to reconsider the decision to open Nandini milk outlets in Kerala, the latter is pinning hopes on intervention by the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).
KMF already opened three milk outlets in Kerala and is reportedly planning to open more.
KCMMF chairman K S Mani told DH that the NDDB assured to convene a meeting of the cooperative federations of various states to discuss the concerns over one state's milk cooperative federation entering the other.
"It is against the basic cooperative principles," he said.
Though KCMMF had written a letter to KMF raising this concern a few months back, there was no response yet.
Mani said that similar issues were prevailing in other states also and hence an intervention of NDDB was very important. After Karnataka, Tamil Nadu is also concerned over Amul's entry into the state.
The KCMMF chairman also said that since Karnataka was already facing an acute milk shortage, there was no rationale for KMF selling milk in Kerala.
Mani also said that KCMMF was not concerned that Nandini's entry would hit the sales of the Milma brand because Milma maintained good quality and the price of Milma milk is less by Rs 2 per litre than Nandini.
Milma sells only 16 lakh litres of milk daily in Kerala while the state's milk requirement was much more as Kerala has over 85 lakh households.
"Many private parties are now filling this gap. Hence, Nandini's entry to Kerala might only hit the private players," he said.
Published 14 June 2023, 10:23 IST