KARACHI, Feb 28: Stakeholders in the milk business are set to increase the milk price in March. Last year in the same month, they had raised the prices by three rupees per litre to Rs28 from Rs25.

Dairy farmers are holding meetings with the city government officials to exert pressure on the administration. However, the city government, which made a lot of noise last year, finally allowed the stakeholders to increase the price.

The official wholesale and retail price of fresh milk is Rs23 and Rs25 a litre but, in the market the wholesale and retail price is Rs25 and Rs28 a litre, respectively.

As March has started, the dairy farmers have again become active to raise the prices. Market sources said that the dairy farmers are pressurizing the government to fix the wholesale and retail price at Rs32 and Rs34 per litre, respectively.

“Our members are busy in calculations to come up with a new price so that price burden can be minimized for the consumers,” general secretary Dairy Farmers Association (DFA), Dr Rafiquddin Babar told Dawn.

“I cannot give you the exact numbers but prices will be raised in March as they were increased last year,” he said.

He said the farmers are selling fresh milk at Rs25.80 per litre but consumers buy it at Rs28 after it went through the middle-man and retailers before reaching the consumers.

He said that the price will be increased due to the continuous increase in cost of production. He added that the price of animal feed has surged by 50 per cent in the last three to four months. The transportation cost of animals as well as milk has also risen due to increase in diesel price, he added.

The sale of fresh milk is estimated at four million litres a day in Karachi as against the demand of five million litres. The gap in supply and demand is met through powder and tetra milk packs. Fresh milk has seven per cent fat content as against 3.5 per cent in tetra packs.

The City government officials, in a meeting with milk retailers, and dairy farmers on February 23, warned them not to increase the price before it is approved by the government.

It was also decided in the meeting that the city government would take action against the retailers and the wholesalers for charging extra price without the government’s approval.

A city government official said that the government will again hold separate meetings with the retailers, wholesalers, middle-men, consumers and the farmers to decide on the future price.

After the meeting with stakeholders, a conference will be called to work out the new price keeping in view the ground reality and the experts’ analysis.

The price, which would be worked out in the conference, would be sent to the City Nazim for approval.