Sharad Pawar meets dairy groups on export of milk powder

NEW DELHI: Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on Wednesday convened a meeting with dairy industry stakeholders to discuss the possibilities of exporting skimmed milk powder.

The meeting was attended by officials of National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), animal husbandry department, private dairies and milk producers' groups.

The voice for lifting ban on milk powder has grown louder after the government allowed exports of casein and its products recently.

Milk producers demanded that the ban on export of skimmed milk powder be lifted citing surplus stock of around 1 lakh tonne. Around 11 litre of milk is used in producing one kg of skimmed milk powder.

"The government had imposed a ban on skimmed milk powder in February last year. Since then, there have been large quantities of milk powder lying dumped with dairies," said Kishan Jagrati Manch president Sudhir Panwar, who attended the meeting.

According to animal husbandry department officials, global prices of skimmed milk are less than the domestic prices. "The price of milk powder in global markets is around Rs 130 per kg while that in the domestic market is Rs 165 a kg. Exports then are not viable," an official said.

Milk producers demanded market intervention and subsidies on transport for the facilitation of exports.

"The respective state government may shell out a subsidy of Rs 15 a kg and the central government too may come up with a matching amount to ensure export viability. The government should allow at export of at least 50,000 tonne to ease pressure from private and cooperative dairies," said a dairy owner.