The Malabar Regional Co-operative Milk Producers' Union of the Milma has begun purchasing all milk produced in the area from Sunday. Milma's Malabar Union cut milk procurement by 40% on Tuesday because supply exceeded demand. It had stopped collecting milk in the afternoons.
According to Malabar MILMA chairman K S Mani, sales have decreased by 3 lakh litres per day, resulting in a daily loss of Rs 60 lakh. “Through local bodies, we intend to distribute the excess milk to Covid care centers. “A portion of it will also be distributed to labor camps where guest workers are housed,” he added.
MRCMPU used to buy 7.85 lakh litres of milk every day, but now only sells 5 lakh litres. Mani claims that the surplus milk is sent to milk-powdering units in Tamil Nadu, resulting in a significant loss for Malabar Milma.
After a meeting with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan and J Chinchurani, the Minister for Animal Husbandry, Dairy Development, and Milk Co-operatives, its chairman K S Mani and the union agreed to reverse its decision.
Mani was told that the government would intervene to deal with the excess milk collected during the meeting. Milma unions in Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram will also get more Malabar milk.
Tamil Nadu and Karnataka factories agreed to convert and supply 2.5 lakh litres of milk powder. Excess milk will be distributed through tribal areas, three-tier panchayats, guest labor camps, old-age homes, COVID-19 clinics, and Anganawadis, according to Mani and the union's managing director, Dr P Murali.
The union's previous decision to cut milk procurement had placed the region's dairy farmers in a bind.
After people accepted the Malabar union's and other organizations' challenge to "buy more milk," the milk market began to show a slight upward trend.
