Sarhad Dairy hikes milk procurement prices

RAJKOT: The Kutch District Cooperative Milk Union Ltd, popularly known as Sarhad Dairy, has hiked its milk procurement prices to help Maldhari community that is facing an acute drinking water crisis.
Sarhad Dairy is affiliated to Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) that markets brand Amul.
"Keeping in view the scarcity and price of fodder, we have decided to hike the milk procurement prices from current Rs 5.70 per litre to Rs 5.90, which amounts to an increase of Rs 1.40 per litre," said managing director P K Patel.
"On an average we procure 2.72 lakh litres of milk from our 625 village milk cooperative societies in the Kutch region daily. The procurement comes down in times of summer and scarcity of water. At the peak, we had procured 3.71 lakh litres in a day last year,'' he added.
Sarhad Dairy has 18 bulk milk cooling centres in Kutch and has one milk packaging plant.
"We process and package 50,000 litres milk in our plant while the rest of the milk is being sent to GCMMF's Mother Dairy plant in Gandhinagar,'' said an official of Sarhad Dairy.
The Kutch region is a rain deficient region and keeping domestic animals is a tough task. The dairy in the boarder district is expanding rapidly and offers various initiatives to children of milk cooperative members including interest free loans to study in veterinary sciences and dairy technology.