Milk shortage in DDC Biratnagar

By Our Correspondent, Biratnagar, Aug. 17: Four years ago, the Biratnagar Milk Supply Scheme (BMSS) of Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) was supplying milk products to the market after collecting 40,000 litres of milk daily.  

The Biratnagar project of the DDC, which became the only organisation to buy milk produced by farmers after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, purchased about 100,000 litres of milk daily.

After buying up to 100,000 litres of milk every day and having problems managing its market, the province government provided Rs. 50 million grant to upgrade the powder plant to be able to operate 24 hours a day and establish a new ice bank.

The BMSS, which upgraded the powder plant by expecting an increase in milk collection, has now reached a difficult juncture where it cannot meet even the minimum demand of the market.

Not only is DDC unable to meet the market demand, it has stopped the production of cheese after a long time. Ghee has not been sent to the market for three months.

Due to being a self-sufficient province in milk production, there is a powder plant in the BMSS to produce powder from excess milk. But the powder plant has not been operational for five months.

"We have a shortage of raw milk so how can we run a powder plant?" said Parameshwar Chaudhary, chief of the BMSS. “We do not have the milk required to run the powder plant, so we have not run the plant for five months."

Until two years ago, the DDC was facing lack of space to stock powder milk and butter, now it is supplying goods to market by purchasing powder and butter from private sector.

The BMSS is currently collecting 10,000 litres of milk daily. During the same period last year, the daily collection was 22,000 litres.

The milk collection capacity of the project has been decreasing at a rate of 50 per cent every year for the past few years. The Biratnagar project is in trouble as the DDC is unable to bring milk from Ilam, where it collects the most milk.

"Farmers of Ilam are more interested in making Churpi instead of selling milk, so we are not getting milk as per requirement," said Chaudhary. “Until three years ago, about 12,000 litres of milk was collected daily from Ilam, now 3,000 litres is collected daily." Farmers are unwilling to sell milk to DDC due to non-payment of milk bought from farmers in time.

"Among the farmers, the DDC has been known as a 'slow pay company'," said Meghraj Acharya, a dairy farmer. "How can farmers who make a living by selling milk continue to give milk if they do not get money for milk for three to four months?"

The milk distribution project has not paid for the milk bought from farmers since June 15. According to the project, there is no situation to give payment till the end of August. The farmers themselves have stopped selling the milk to the project after it failed to pay in time.

Experts have said that the production of milk in Province 1 has not decreased. Although the collection of DDC has decreased, there is no shortage of milk in the market.

The private dairy industry is buying milk from cooperatives by paying a higher price of Rs. 5 to Rs.10 per litre.

"Private industries are buying milk by paying Rs. 5 to 10 more per litre. The private sector is giving advance payment to the cooperative, but we have been selling milk on credit for two months, this is one of the reasons for the low collection of milk," said Chaudhary.

Not only in Biratnagar, but all DDC’s projects are currently facing an acute shortage of milk.

The Balaju project in Kathmandu is experiencing a milk shortage. A tanker (12,000 litres) of milk is being supplied from Biratnagar every three days to meet the shortage of Kathmandu.

"All our projects are facing shortage at the moment, it is expected to improve after the start of the milk season," Chaudhary said. Since the milk production is high from the third week of August to mid-February, this period is considered as the milk season.