Amul, Mother Dairy to hike milk prices by Rs 2/litre from today

New Delhi Aug 17: Amul or the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has decided to increase milk prices for 500 ml packs by Rs 2, effective from today. Amul said that the increase of Rs 2 translates to a hike of 4 per cent in MRP, which is lower than the average food inflation.

As a policy, Amul said, it passes on almost 80 paise of every rupee for milk and milk products to the milk producers. "The price revision shall help in sustaining remunerative milk prices to our milk producers and to encourage them for higher milk production," stated Amul.

This is the second hike in six months by both the brands, earlier in March, both had increased milk prices by Rs 2 per litre. During the March hike, Amul had stated that for the past 2 years, the company had made only a 4 per cent increase per annum in its fresh milk category. The corporation had then explained that the price hike was being done due to rise in costs of energy, packaging, logistics, cattle feeding cost.

Amul MD RS Sodhi had recently said, ''Prices will be firm, I can't say by how much. They can't go down from here, they can only go up."

Stressing that inflation in this industry is not a cause for worry per se because the farmers are benefitting through higher prices for the produce, Sodhi said the hikes by Amul and the broader dairy sector are very limited as compared to others or when compared to the rise in input costs.