April 23, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1429

KARACHI, April 22: The consumers are set to receive another shock in the shape of a Rs4 per litre increase in the price of packed milk from May 1.

The one-litre pack will cost Rs48 as compared to the present Rs44, while the half-litre and quarter packs will be available at Rs27 and Rs14, respectively, as compared to Rs25 and Rs13.

The general secretary of the Karachi Retail Grocers Group, Mohammad Farid Qureishi, told Dawn on Tuesday that the distributors of Milk Pak, Olpers and Haleeb had already cautioned the retailers about the new prices a few days back.

Tetra Pak milk producers have been cashing in on the growing demand for packed milk as many consumers, after watching media campaigns against the unhygienic practices of fresh milk sellers, have switched to packed milk. The media campaigns had mainly targeted the unhygienic way of transport of fresh milk from dairy farms to wholesale markets.

Many retailers will soon begin hiding their stocks in order to earn big profits when the prices are increased next month as milk packs do not have price tags.

In June 2005, the one-litre pack was available at Rs29. In March 2006, it surged to Rs36 followed by another increase making it Rs37 in September 2006. After the surging demand, packed milk producers had been making multiple price increases in a single year. The last price increase was witnessed in Sept 1, 2007 when Milkpak producers had raised the rate to Rs44 from Rs42 for a litre pack while others followed suit in October 2007.

The executive district officer (EDO), enterprise and investment promotion (E&IP), Dr Shahab Imam, told Dawn that he had asked the tetra milk producers a few days back to mention the law under which they fixed and regulated prices. Besides, the city government also wanted to have a meeting with them. In reply, they had served a legal notice on the E&IP department, saying that the commodity did not come in the purview of essential commodities and the E&IP had no right to check its prices, he said.

The EDO said that his department was taking advice from the city government’s legal department so that the department looking after the affairs of packed milk producers could be reached for taking notice of the price issue.

Dr Shahab said the city government intended to take up the price issue with packed milk producers in a legal way.

In February 2007, the then city government had tried to shake up the powerful multinational milk producers by asking them to furnish details of the cost incurred by them on their milk packs in order to determine the cost and prepare a price policy.

E&IP officials met the leading pack producers, who assured the officials of providing the needed information before Feb 14, 2007.

The city government also had pressed the producers for the printing of retail prices on the packs coupled with the expiry date. However, the retail price is still not mentioned on the packs though the expiry date is printed. Efforts were also made to get the cost of the production and profit margin of producers. Even the district coordination officer had issued a timeframe of 15 days for the producers to furnish details. Some producers gave the details while others spurned the orders.