KARACHI, June 16: A leading powdered milk company has raised the price of its one kg pack by Rs20. Similarly, the price of imported powdered milk has also registered increase. Nido has increased the price of one kg pack to Rs240 from Rs220 while its 400 gram pack is now priced at Rs108 as compared to Rs 100. Other companies are likely to follow the suit.

This is another jolt for the consumers the first one was an increase of Rs3 in fresh milk prices to Rs28 a litre two months back.

Member of Federal Export Board and chairman Powdered Milk Importer Group, Abdul Rahim Janoo said that international price of the milk had surged to $2,200-2,300 per ton from $2000 tons in a month because of low production prospects and reduction in export subsidies by European Union.

As a result of this, the price of 25 kg bag of powdered milk in local markets surged to Rs4,600-4,800 from Rs3,800-4,000 in the last 15 days, he added.

Pakistan used to import 27,000 tons of powdered milk three years back but the import dropped and last year only 8,500 tons of the milk arrived in the country, he said.

The government had kept the customs duty on powdered milk import at 25 per cent on the pressure of dairy milk farmers who have been increasing the prices for the last few years, he said.

Being the most demanding item of every household, the government should have curtailed the import duty to 10 per cent to offset the impact of rising global prices of the milk besides providing benefit to the general public, Janoo said.

He said that the government should take steps ahead of Ramazan as the demand of milk increases in the holy month.

President Jodia Bazar Traders Association, Jaffer Kudia predicted further fall in import of powdered milk if the government maintains the import duty at 25 per cent.

He said that due to low production of milk in Pakistan coupled with declining trend in import over the last two years, the gap between supply and demand is rising because the price of milk powder is now tagged at Rs184 per kg these days as compared to Rs150 per kg in the local markets.

Jaffer said that the annual consumption of dry milk powder is estimated at 150,000 tons which the local dairy farmers have failed to meet.

He urged the government to review the import duty structure of the milk and bring it down to five per cent.