KARACHI, Feb 8: Many retailers continue to charge Rs32 to Rs34 per litre for fresh milk against the official rate of Rs28 per litre. However, the retailers maintain they are charging Rs30 per litre.

An All Karachi Milk Retailers Welfare Association office bearer, claimed only 10 per cent retailers were over charging, while the others were selling milk at Rs30 per litre.

A meeting was held between Executive District Officer Revenue Saleh Farooqui and other officials with dairy farmers and retailers on Wednesday to discuss the issue.

However, it remained inconclusive. The stakeholders and government officials will meet again on Saturday to resolve the issue.

The retailers have categorically ruled out the possibility of selling milk at the official rate of Rs28 per litre saying dairy farmers/wholesalers were supplying fresh milk at Rs31.88 per litre to the retailers. Government officials had asked the dairy farmers in Wednesday’s meeting to sell milk at Rs26 per litre to retailers but they gave no reply.

The dairy farmers will present their price list in Saturday’s meeting. It is also learnt the dairy farmers are now trying to reduce the fat content in fresh milk at the producion stage in case they have to agree on supplying milk at Rs26 per litre to retailers. Currently the fat percentage in fresh milk is between five to nine per cent.

Retailers and dairy farmers both claim the milk sold in Karachi is of highest quality with six to seven per cent fat contents compared to other provinces.

One dairy farmer said it was difficult to supply high quality milk at Rs26 per litre to retailers and farmers were likely to reduce the fat percentage in fresh milk if they agree on Rs26 per litre.

He said the fat percentage can be reduced by extracting cream from fresh milk. Another method was to reduce the amount of desi ghee, dalda ghee, mustard oil, wheat, bread mixed in the feed given to buffaloes.

However, the retailers said altering the quality of fodder would result in weight loss among dairy animals and affect prevailing prices.

They said the fat percentage in tetra pack milk is 3.5 per cent. If dairy farmers succeed in reducing fat percentage in fresh milk, consumers would receive low quality milk.