We can keep talking about dollar appreciation and rupee depreciation, and hear a lot of predictable oohs and aahs from the audience, till the cows come home. Instead, if we go where the cows are, we may actually hear some happy moos, from the dairy owners. How come? Because the major dairy players in Maharashtra are currently realising prices to the tune of Rs 215-225 per kg as against Rs 170-180 a few days back, for skimmed milk powder, as Devendra Shah, Chairman of Parag Milk Foods, informs.‘Increasing rates of skimmed milk powder and depreciation of Indian rupee has set Indian dairy market on fire,’ reads the headline of a press communiqué from Parag. “With supply situation of milk in the country constrained over the last 2 months due to lean season and on the other hand, demand increasing domestically as well due to start of festival season with Eid, Shravan, Ganesh, Navratri and Diwali, dairies have been forced to pay much higher prices to milk producers to maintain supplies,” it elaborates.
Over a telephonic interview with YourStory, Shah observed that there is a potential for increasing dairy productivity three-fold. While I look forward to visiting Parag’s model farm where they are able to achieve high productivity, what can interest me more is the work of startups in the dairy sector.
