White wave: Daily procurement glut poses challenge to Mysuru Milk Union Ltd

Mysuru: Mysuru Milk Union Limited (MyMUL) is procuring 10 lakh litres of milk daily, which has posed it a new challenge in utilising the surplus milk.In 2017, the milk union was procuring 5.5 lakh litres of milk from dairy farmers through its 1,105 primary milk producers cooperative societies. The daily milk procurement touched 7.5 litres by 2022. But the Mymul milk procurement has doubled to 10 lakh litres by mid-June 2024. This has posed a big challenge to the milk union to utilise it with an increase in milk production in the district.Currently, the milk union is catering three lakh litres of milk to meet the needs of its daily consumers by selling through its milk outlets spread across the city and district.From the past few months, the union was also utilising one lakh litres of milk for production of curd, butter and ice cream during the summer season.As the demand for these products has dropped this monsoon season, the union scaled down the production of these products to greater extent. Thousands of litres of milk which were used for production of these products also remain unutilised now.MyMUL chairman PM Prasanna said that even though the milk union recorded the surplus milk production of 6.5 lakh litres of milk daily, it has not stopped procuring milk from its producers. It has offered a price of Rs 34.10 per litre of milk supply for milk producers during the monsoon season.During last December, the milk union has reduced the price by Rs 1.75 per litre for the milk it was procuring from dairy farmers, but now it restored the prices to Rs 34.10 per litre of milk, he said.“Of the 6.5 lakh litres surplus production, the milk union has sent two lakh litres of milk to its Mother Dairy unit of Karnataka Milk Federation at Bengaluru daily for conversion to milk powder which is being utilised for Ksheera Bhagya scheme of free milk supply to government-run schools across the state.”Mymul utilises remaining 4.5 lakh litres surplus production for production of milk powder, other byproducts of milk production. The milk powder it produces will be stored safely, and it will be sold once the market picks up both at national and international markets for its Nandini brand, he said.“As part of its market extension activities, MyMUL has also increased the sale of its milk and its products to neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu and Kerala. As there is huge demand for its Nandini brand milk and its products in Tamil Nadu, milk packet sales touched 40,000 litres daily now from 4,000 litres in Tamil Nadu,” he said.MyMUL director N Cheluvaraju said that even though his union is recording surplus production, it has procured the milk from its producers after offering decent prices to them without affecting their livelihood as more than five lakh dairy farmers are directly and indirectly involved in dairy farming in the district.