August 25, 2011
India's Apr-Dec 2010/11 dairy imports ascend
India imported 51,489 tonnes of dairy products during the April-December period of 2010-11 fiscal year as against 31,478 tonnes in the whole of last year, said Minister of State for Agriculture Charan Das Mahant.
The export of dairy products stood at 34,841 tonnes in the first nine months of 2010-11 against 42,680 tonnes in the entire 2009-10 fiscal year, he said.
The government has imposed a ban on export of milk and milk products and casein and casein products since February 18 this year to shore up supplies and contain increase in prices, the minister said.
In reply to an another question, the minister said milk prices have been raised twice during the last one year (August 2010 to August 2011) by Delhi Milk Scheme (DMS) and Mother Dairy due to increase in cost of production.
While milk prices increased by INR1/litre (US$0.02) by DMS and Mother Dairy on December 24, 2010 they were hiked by INR2/litre (US$0.04) on May 18 this year, Mahant said.
On steps taken to augment availability of milk and to stabilise price, he said the National Dairy Development Board has been allowed to import 30,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder and 15,000 tonnes of butter, butter oil and anhydrous milk at zero concessional duty.
India's milk production currently stands at 112 million tonnes.