Thiruvananthapuram: Pay more for your daily milk from December 1. Milma has announced an increase of Rs 6 per litre from next month. The prices of milk products too will go up. Earlier an expert committee constituted by Milma, the apex milk cooperative body in Kerala, had recommended hiking the price of milk by Rs 8.57 a litre.
Milma wanted to give effect to the revised prices from Monday itself, but the State Government refused nod. Chinchu Rani, the State Minister for Dairy Development, and K S Mani, Milma chairman, held discussions with Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in this regard.
Currently, a 500 milliliter pack of homogenized toned milk is sold at Rs 23 at Milma outlets.
Milma is planning to convene a meeting of the governing board on Friday.
Though milk prices are increased on the ground that the dairy farmers are operating at a loss, it is alleged that the benefits declared by the government are not reaching the farmers.
The dairy farmers demand that since the price of cattle feed and other inputs had almost doubled, the government benefits should be provided to them directly.
Across Kerala even individual milk suppliers set the price based on the price revision by the Milma.
The Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (KCMMF) is known after its brand Milma.