Haryana's dairy farmers receive higher prices

The Haryana Dairy Development Cooperation Federation has increased the milk procurement rate in the Indian state by Rs20 (US$0.43) per kg fat.

The revised milk purchase rate will be Rs320 (US$6.94) per kg fat, effective January 1, 2010. For an average fat of 6.5%, the increase in rate would be Rs1.34 (US$0.03) per kg. With this, the federation would pay about Rs2.8 crore per month additional milk price for the milk purchased every month during the current season.

This would be highest milk procurement price in the Northern Region. However, there would be no change in the selling price of pasteurised milk to the consumers.

The additional financial burden on account of increase in milk procurement price would be borne by the Federation and its affiliated milk unions in the state and would not be passed on to the consumers. This would help the Federation and Milk Unions in purchasing higher quantity of milk from farmers, said the federation's spokesman.