Milk shortage casts shadow over Teej festival

By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Aug. 30: Radhika Khanal of Pepsi Cola, in Kathmandu, was planning to prepare Dhakane (rice pudding) on Monday, the Dar Khane Day of Teej festival. She had invited her nieces and nephews as well as sisters to enjoy the traditional Dar.

When she visited the nearby grocery to buy milk supplied by the Dairy Development Corporation (DDC), she was shocked to know that no milk arrived in the locality. Although she has been consuming only DDC milk for years, she sought it from other suppliers, without success.

“The shopkeeper said that no truck carrying milk arrived in this area this morning,” she said.

Not taking the words of the shopkeeper, she immediately sent her son to shops elsewhere, but he came with the same message: that no milk truck came that morning. 

A man nearby was also complaining that he got no milk tea despite making efforts to prepare one. 

The milk shortage came as a shock to many on the eve of a major festival.

Not just in Pepsi Cola, milk was in short supply in other areas: Consumers who used to buy three-four packets of milk every day were having to console themselves with one-two packets. 

When asked about the reason for the shortage of milk, Sanjeev Jha, General Manager of the DDC, said that the supply of DDC milk has declined significantly for the last few months. 

He added that some other areas have been facing even more dire shortage of milk. 

“When a retailer sells a lot of milk to one person, others may not get enough. This may also be one of the causes of the shortage,” he said.

"The supply of milk has been failing to keep up with the demand, and that gap is causing this shortage. That said, we distributed around 66,000 litres of milk in the Kathmandu Valley on Monday," he told The Rising Nepal.

The demand for DDC's milk stands at around 90,000 litres in the valley against its supply of 66,000 litres. So, there is already a deficit of about 30,000 litres even on a normal day.

The supply of the DDC milk has declined across the country as the milk collection has decreased since the Nepali month of Baisakh, he said.

The supply of milk even from the private milk suppliers has decreased during the Teej festival as consumption of milk has increased in local levels to celebrate festivals, putting milk in short supply. 

With the reduction in milk collection, the DDC has already stopped the production of ghee and butter for the last three months. It is also considering focusing only on the distribution of liquid milk.

Jha said that milk collection is expected to increase from the month of Ashoj and that is expected to its distribution as well.