Guwahati: Mother Dairy would increase milk prices in the Delhi-NCR market by Rs 2 per litre with effect from Tuesday, citing an increase in input costs.
Mother Dairy, one of the top milk suppliers in Delhi-NCR with volumes of more than 30 million litres per day, has raised milk prices five times this year.
According to PTI, Mother Dairy has raised the price of full-cream milk by Rs 2 to Rs 66 per litre while reducing the price of toned milk to Rs 53 per litre from Rs 51 per litre.
Double-toned milk rate has been increased to Rs 47 per litre from Rs 45 per litre.
Mother Dairy has agreed not to increase prices for token (bulk vended) milk alternatives and cow milk.
The cost of living will be affected by the milk price increase.
Mother Dairy blamed the price increase on an increase in the cost of buying raw milk from dairy producers.
“It is an unprecedented year for the dairy industry. We have been witnessing a significant increase in demand of milk and milk products from both consumers and institutions, even after festivals. On the other hand, procurement of raw milk has also not picked up after Diwali as was anticipated,” the company said.
Input cost increases and the recent heatwave have led to an increase in raw milk procurement prices of roughly 24%, it was noted.
“This stress on the raw milk prices is being felt across the industry, putting pressure on the consumer prices. In our commitment to continue paying remunerative prices to farmers to ease the impact, we are severely constrained to revise consumer prices of select variants of milk in Delhi NCR effective from December 27, 2022,” Mother Dairy said.
As a responsible organisation, the company said it has always endeavoured to strike a right balance between farmers and consumers. “…therefore, we have been passing the increased input cost to our consumers partially on select variants and in a phased manner.”
About 75% to 80% of the prices consumers pay for milk are passed by Mother Dairy to the milk producers.