Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Oct 6: While the other sectors are showing slow signs of recovery after the lockdown ended, Dakshina Kannada Milk Union continues to be under loss. The signs are recovery in near future are totally absent.

The utilisation of milk, curd etc continue at the previous level. There has not been a hike in demand for hotels, restaurants, catering, hostels, canteens and other commercial entities since March. Some hostels which got 3,000 to 4,000 litres of milk per day are now getting less than a thousand-litre of milk. As the monsoon climate is continuing, there is no demand for buttermilk and lassi too. The sale of value-added milk products have gone down, the officials say.

"Before the lockdown, an average of 3.34 lac litres of milk was sold every day, but now the sale is Rs 3.2 lac litres. Curd sale has gone down from 64,015 kg per day to 42,336 kg. Ghee was in high demand in temples like Kollur, Hattiangady, Dharmasthala etc but since March, demand has slumped and it is yet to pick momentum. Milk sale has come down by four per cent and curds by 13 per cent as compared to last year," the staff revealed.

The generation of milk has not been hit. People living in foreign countries and other districts have returned and undertaken dairying, as a result of which the average milk collection has gone up from 3.93 lac litres to 4.55 lac litres in September.

Before lockdown, the excess milk was converted into powder, which had good demand in the past. Now, all the unions are making milk powder, but there is not enough demand. Ice cream units are not placing a demand for milk powder. For making powder, the union spends an additional Rs 11 per litre of milk, and if unused for six months, it will go waste.

President of Dakshina Kannada Milk Union Raviraj Hegde says that in spite of corona, this district union has helped farmers in a better way in milk collection. However, Karnataka Milk Federation is facing problems in marketing the products. He said that there is hope for recovery if commercial consumption increases.