Pabna dairy farmers face huge loss

Dairy farmers dump their produce on a road at Vangura in Pabna yesterday protesting the ongoing blockade and hartals. They have been unable to sell milk at the collection centres of dairy companies who are having trouble shipping it to Dhaka. Photo: Star

Dairy farmers of Pabna and Sirajganj are frustrated over the drop in sales of their produce to government and private milk processing companies. They have held the ongoing blockade and shutdowns responsible behind the erratic sales, which is taking a heavy toll on their business.

In protest, dairy farmers of Vangura upazila in Pabna on Saturday poured around 2,000 litres of milk on a road in front of Brac dairy chilling centre.

Farmers in the country's biggest milk producing zone have been counting huge losses since the BNP-led alliance had enforced blockade on January 6.

The milk processing companies, too, are blaming the blockade and shutdowns for the current situation. They said they were unable to ship milk to the capital and elsewhere in the country due to arson and petrol bomb attacks on vehicles.

“We could not supply milk properly to the capital and other places due to the transport blockade and hartals for the last few weeks. That's why we sometimes stop collecting milk from them [dairy farmers],” said AFM Idris, manager of Milk Vita at Baghabari.

Around 1,200 milk producing units of “Milk Vita Zone” at Shahzadpur in Sirajganj and Bera and Santhia upazilas in Pabna are bearing the brunt of blockade and vandalism, said Aminul Islam, manager of Charanga Milk Samiti at Shahzadpur.

“We used to supply around 500 litres of milk to Brac milk collection centre every day. The centre did not purchase milk for the last two days. The huge produce [milk] will turn sour. Moreover, we cannot sell those in retail outlets in the upazila as the price of milk has fallen sharply,” said Jewel Rahman, manager of Patharghata Dugdho Cooperative Society.

Talking to The Daily Star, Abdud Dain, area manager of Brac of Pabna area, said they used to collect 1,00,000 litres of milk from Pabna and Sirajganj a day, and ship those to the capital, but now they can transport around 60,000 to 80,000 litres due to the ongoing blockade.

The two northern districts produce around 4,00,000 litres of milk every day. Of those, Milk Vita purchases around 2,00,000 litres of milk while Brac purchases around 1,00,000 litre. The rest is purchased either by Akij or Pran.