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After Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) raised prices of milk in Ahmedabad and Saurashtra region few days back, now, Surat District Milk Union Producers' Ltd (SDMUPL),also known as Sumul Dairy, a member of GCMMF has also decided to follow its footsteps. Sumul will raise price of milk by Rs 2 per litre from June 16, as it plans to raise procurement prices to Rs 600 per kg fat from July 1.
Talking to Business Standard, Jayesh Desai, managing director, SDMUPL explained that input costs have risen significantly during the past one year and three months, the time since the last retail price revision had taken place. "Fodder costs have risen by 11 per cent, while electricity and labour costs have risen by 18 per cent each. We have been raising procurement prices to farmers at regular intervals, and will raise it by Rs 25 per kg fat from July 1."
He added that July to September is the traditional lean season, when production as such drops. Moreover, with Ramzan round the corner, Sumul is expecting demand to rise by 40,000-50,000 litres per day (lpd).
"We now procure around 1.2 million lpd and process around 1.1 million lpd. So, to meet the additional demand, we will have to buy from other dairies for the time being, which would also result in a transportation cost of around 70-80 paise per litre for us," Desai claimed.
