Barring a few stray incidents, dairy farmers in India are a blessed lot, especially when one looks at the European scene. Milk producers across the European Union have been agitating over the lack of procurement and slumping rates of dairy products in the wake of Covid 19, says GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi.
Talking to Indian Cooperative, GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi said “We are indeed blessed as not only have our procurement registered an appreciable increase but also the farmers are getting better rates for their produce.”
Amul collects milk from 18700 village cooperative societies and brings them to 80 dairy plants spread across the country. Sodhi informed that last year Amul procured 230 lakh litres per day milk but in the span of next five years we are planning to enhance our milk procurement to 320 lakh liters per day, he underlined.
“Our milk procurement registered 9 percent growth in the last 10 years and we will continue it in the coming years. Besides, Amul is investing in making sweets like Pedha, Barfi and other items”. Sodhi said, talking about the future plans.
Barring a few cases, dairy procurement has been smooth in the country despite the threat of the virus, Sodhi felt. One such case was reported from Odisha in which dairy farmers of Raisunguda Milk Producers’ Cooperative Society in Cuttack district threw a huge amount of milk on the road protesting non-procurement of their milk by Odisha State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (OMFED).
But this is nothing compared to what is being seen in Europe. UK based Farmers Weekly report that milk producers across the European Union have been mounting demonstrations to demand EU-wide cuts in production to help tighten the market and lift prices during the coronavirus crisis.
Organised by the producer body the European Milk Board, dairy farmers in seven countries staged a variety of activities to draw attention to the issue. In Germany, producers erected a skimmed milk powder (SMP) pyramid in front of the Reichstag (German Parliament) in Berlin.
According to Belgian dairy farmer and EMB president Erwin Schöpges, “SMP has now become the EU-wide symbol for the misguided crisis measures implemented by the European Union in the dairy sector”, reports the publication.
He maintains that simply building up stock of butter and powder to deal with the coronavirus-related collapse in demand is just storing up over-supply problems for some future date.
Further demos were held in Luxembourg, Denmark, Belgium, Lithuania and Italy.