KARACHI, Feb 4: Most fresh milk retailers kept their business closed on Sunday in protest against the pressure from the city government to charge the official rate of Rs28 per litre.

They also threatened to observe an indefinite shutter-down if the demands they had put forward to the city government and dairy farmers in recent meetings were not met.

There were reports from a few areas that some retailers did open their outlets in the afternoon or evening but put no dairy product on sale.

“We cannot sell milk at the official rate as it costs us Rs32 per litre at wholesale stage,” they maintained while justifying their act of keeping the business closed under the instruction of their association.

On Thursday last, Chairman of the All Karachi Milk Retailers Welfare Association Hafiz Nisar had ruled out any strike to be observed by its members on the question of milk prices and till Friday night, he had not issued any instruction for a shutter-down on Sunday.

Surprisingly, he categorically denied having given a call for closure of retail business for Sunday. When asked to comment on the shutter-down, he maintained that the retailers who could not afford selling milk at a price lower than the purchasing rates had no option but to close their business. However, he added, those who could afford this, were running their business as usual.

“This is not a strike… we have not forced retailers to observe a strike… retailers are free to decide what to do in the given situation,” he maintained.

He claimed that the retailers had been suffering big losses over the past several weeks as they were selling milk at Rs28 per litre after buying the commodity at Rs31.88 per litre from farmers.

An estimated four-five million litre milk is consumed in Karachi per day. Owing to the closure of retail business in the city, the dairy farmers must have suffered huge losses.

President of the Dairy Farmers Association of Karachi (DFAK) Haji Akhtar confirmed the loss of two million litre milk, accusing retailers of destroying the milk stocks after intercepting dairy farmers’ supply vehicles in many areas, like Liaquatabad, Lyari, Sohrab Goth, Defence etc. He also claimed that in some incidents the supply vans were attacked with stones and colour was added to the milk to spoil it. However, he said, sale of another two million litre milk to certain retailers and consumers was successfully managed.

He deplored the unruly retailers of having resorted to creating a law and orders problem in the city. He said that his organization had not lodged an FIR in this regard.

Rejecting the retailers association’s demand of making milk available to them at Rs26 per litre, he said: “We will, instead, try to sell milk directly to consumers by setting up stalls in various localities of the city in case the retailers observed an indefinite shutter-down.”

General Secretary of the DFAK Dr Rafiquddin Babar also rejected the retailers’ claim of buying milk at Rs32 per litre from farmers, and said that retailers were being charged Rs29 per litre and the rate included transportation cost.