New Delhi [India]: The Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the apex dairy body that markets milk and milk products under the brand name Amul, is set to increase the retail prices of fresh pouch milk by approximately 4 to 5 per cent across major variants in India, with the revision coming into effect from November 12.
According to Amul, the price revision impacts its largest selling variants across operational markets. Under the revised structure, the price of Amul Taaza toned milk, containing 3 per cent milk fat, rises by Rs 2 per litre, (3.3% increase). Meanwhile, the price of Amul Gold milk, containing 6 per cent milk fat, sees an increase of Rs 4 per litre, (5.5% hike).
The company noted that the decision stems from escalating overheads across both dairy farming operations and commercial processing facilities.
“This price hike is being done due to the steep increase in input cost of milk production as well as processing,” the dairy federation stated.
The federation highlighted that agricultural pressures and rising commodity rates directly impact livestock management and daily operational expenditure.
“There is a significant increase in cost of green and dry fodder, cattle feed ingredients like oil cake, maize and molasses, milk packaging film and fuel during the year,” the statement added.
Climatic conditions and erratic precipitation patterns across agrarian belts also play a central role in driving the price revision, according to the federation.
“In the current challenging environmental circumstances due to low and uneven rainfall in Gujarat as well as many parts of India, we are constrained to increase the consumer price of milk to pay better prices to our producers and support them in these difficult times,” Amul said.
The federation explained that member unions have already increased farmer procurement rates by 4 to 5 per cent over the past year. It maintained that the latest consumer price revision aims to sustain these disbursements to rural producers.
“It is important to note that 80% of the revenue collected from consumers through the Amul co-operative structure is returned to our 36 lakh milk producers,” the company said.
It emphasised that this cooperative revenue distribution mechanism directly benefits its vast network of dairy farmers.
“A major portion of the increase in the selling price of milk will go back to the milk producers and they will continue to be encouraged to increase milk production,” the federation stated.