Milk producers face trouble

The BNP-led 20-party's nonstop blockade takes a heavy toll on dairy farmers in Pabna and Sirajganj as dairy producers have cut back on buying and transporting milk.

Around 1,200 milk producing units of "Milk Vita Zone" at Shahzadpur in Sirajganj and Bera and Santhia in Pabna are counting loss every day since the milk processing companies reduced milk collection from them, according to the farmers.

The farmers are even selling milk at a throwaway price in their localities but cannot make up the loss, they add. Sirajganj and Pabna are the largest milk producing districts in the country.

Shakhawat Hossain, deputy general manager of the state-run cooperative dairy farm Milk Vita, said every day they bought around 2.5 lakh litres of milk from dairy farmers through 33 chilling plants across the country.

According to the farmers, Pabna and Sirajganj alone produce around 2 lakh litres of milk every day and Milk Vita buys the lion's share.

"But the collection came down to around 1 lakh litres a day due to the blockade," Shakhawat told The Daily Star.

Milk Vita, which markets pasteurised milk, butter, ghee and powdered milk, collected and processed 60 lakh litres of milk in December and had a target of collecting around 75 lakh litres in January, he added.

"However, we have so far collected and processed only 17.81 lakh litres as of Monday. The amount was more than 30 lakh litres this time last year," he said.

The deputy general manager of Milk Vita said they could not bring sufficient milk to the capital due to the nonstop blockade, resulting in a significant drop in production.

"We often freight four to five truckloads of milk at night, but it is very inadequate against the huge demand," Shakhawat observed.

Apart from Milk Vita, private companies and general people also buy milk from the two districts. But the private companies also feel it unsafe to collect milk during the blockade, say the farmers.

During visits to different milk producing areas in Sirajganj and Shahzadpur on Sunday, it was found that the producers were selling milk at Tk 30 a litre instead of Tk 50 as Milk Vita could not collect the milk.

Abdul Mannan, president of Reshamgari Purbapara Milk Producing Association in Shahzadpur, said milk producers were facing a loss of Tk 15 to Tk 20 per litter due to the blockade.

"Our production cost for each litre of milk ranges between Tk 40 and Tk 45. When the chilling plants do not buy milk from the producers, the farmers had to sell each litre at Tk 30," he said.

Mannan added he had 90 cattle at his dairy farm that produced around 300 litres of milk every day. He claimed his unit [samity] had already experienced a loss of Tk 1 lakh in just one week. "If we cannot sell the milk in time, we have no other alternative to destroying it," he added.

The authorities of Baghabari Milk Vita, the biggest buyer of milk in the region, cannot consume the entire production of the districts during the blockade as they do not have additional preservation rooms.

“Baghabari Milk Vita preserves highest 2 lakh litres of milk. Its processing unit is now overloaded as the authorities could not supply the milk in last seven days," said FM Idris, manager (factory) of Baghabari Milk Vita.