Dairy farmers protest in Madurai by pouring milk on road, demand hike in procurement prices

The members of the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers Welfare Association (TNMPWA) went on an indefinite strike across the state on Friday.

Owing to the strike, hundreds of dairy cooperative societies withheld milk supply causing the state-owned enterprise Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation Limited, popularly known as Aavin a shortage of 18,000 litres on the day, according to a New Indian Express report.

Former minister RB Udhayakumar slammed the government for their inaction and said that Tamil Nadu did not witness milk shortage even for a day from 2011 to 2021, and he urged the authorities to increase the procurement price soon, as per the report.

Members of the Tamil Nadu Milk Producers' Welfare Association (TNMPWA) have threatened to completely stop the supply of milk.

Their demands had already been conveyed through a memorandum submitted to the government to increase the procurement prices to Rs 42 and Rs 51 per litre, respectively, said TNMPWA president V Rajendran as quoted by PTI.

Three months ago, Aavin increased the procurement price by Rs 3 per litre, but the dairy farmers are not happy with this. Currently, Aavin offers a procurement price of Rs 35 for cow milk and for buffalo milk the price is Rs 44 per litre.

The Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers' Federation procures about 37 lakh litres per day, selling 26 lakh litres as milk and it converts the remaining amount into value-added dairy products.