Milk Federation mulls new dairy unit in Udupi

MANGALORE: The Dakshina Kannada Milk Union Federation is scouting for a suitable place in Udupi to establish a higher-capacity dairy processing unit following constraints at its existing unit at Manipal.
Federation president Raviraj Hegde told TOI that they are scouting for a 6-10 acre land in between Brahmavar and Udupi for the new unit, which will have the capacity to process 1.5 lakh litres of milk every day.
The project cost is tentatively pegged at Rs 20-30 crore, depending upon the price of the land. Though Manipal dairy can process 60,000 litres of milk a day, it is working well above its capacity by processing close to 1 lakh litres.
“We get nearly 1 lakh litres from our members in Udupi. The existing capacity is being squeezed and hence we want to establish a higher-capacity unit keeping in mind the future requirements and procurements,’’ he added.
There is sufficient land, close to 110 acres, available at the now defunct Brahmavar Sugar Factory, but the federation is not keen due to liabilities of the sugar factory. “This may force us to buy land at a higher cost. We have requested the state government to give us land in the Krishi Kendra nearby. If it materializes, the unit should come up soon,’’ he added.
Regarding the Mangalore processing unit at Kulshekar, Hegde said it had sufficient capacity at 2 lakh litres. Incidentally, the unit gets only 90,000L from its members.
Though Udupi district’s milk procurement is sufficient for the demand; in Mangalore the demand outstrips the supply. While the procurement is just 90,000 litres per day, the demand is close to 1.6 lakh litres, forcing the federation to procure excess from Karnataka Milk Federation’s diaries in Hassan, Mysore and Mandya.