Staff Reporter :
Liquid milk price reached all time high at Tk 90 a litre, to the woes of the consumers who are already battered by rocketing trend of other key essentials.
Aarong, Pran, Farm Fresh branded liquid milk pack prices increased by Tk 10 a litre from Wednesday evening. Half litre pack price increased to Tk 45 from Tk38-40 earlier. However, state-run Milk Vita is yet to review its price.
“Just three months ago, the price of liquid milk witnessed a Tk 10 a litre hike and the first initiative of the hike was taken by BRAC Enterprise,” Enamul Hoque, a grocer in the Tejgaon area, told The New Nation on Saturday.
After BRAC Enterprise, all other companies then raised prices of the super food one after another, the vendor said.
Meanwhile, powdered milk price also witnessed a Tk 20-30 a kg hike in the last few days as Dano milk, a product of Arla Food, was sold at Tk 800-810 a kg and Diploma, a product of New Zealand Dairy, at Tk 790-800 a kg.
The prices of liquid milk witnessed a hike by 28-30 per cent in a year, while the powdered milk by 20-23 per cent, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
BRAC Enterprises Senior Director Mohammad Anisur Rahman that their production costs had increased by a minimum of Tk 6.0 a litre amid a hike in transport costs followed by costlier diesel, rising packaging costs for US dollar appreciation as well as for five to six hours of load shedding in factory areas.
He said the enterprise also raised the asking rate of milk by Tk 3.80 a litre at the farmers’ level amid a hike in animal feed and other operating costs of the dairymen.
Aarong Dairy is now in stiff competition with its crucial competitor Milk Vita, supplying 0.14 million litres of dairy products a day.
Md Rafiqul Islam, Managing Director of Milk Vita (Bangladesh Milk Producers Cooperative Union Limited), said that the cooperative union had not taken any decision of price hike until Friday.
He said the company was now supplying 0.15-0.17 million litres of dairy products a day of which liquid milk comprises 0.10 to 0.12 million litres.
The union has raised its asking rate for farmers by Tk 5.0 a litre in recent months amid a nearly 40-50 per cent hike in cattle feed prices, Rafiqul added.
The country’s domestic production of milk is 9.9 million tonnes against a demand for 15 million tonnes, according to the Department of Livestock Services.
The country also imports 0.12-0.14 million tonnes of powdered milk to meet a shortfall.
