Bangalore, April 08: Start paying more for milk from today.
The price of Nandini Milk sold all over the state by 13 different milk diaries of KMF will go up by Rs3 per litre from Thursday. This means you have to pay Rs19 per litre (from Rs16).
The government feels the hike is justified. Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) Chairman Gali Somashekara Reddy said that “even the increased price in state is low compared to other states where it is at least Rs20 per litre. Since 2007 there has been no hike in milk prices.”
Restaurants and hotels in the city are also revising the rates with the hike. The Bruhat Bangalore Hotels Association President KN Vasudev Adiga said that a cup of coffee or tea in darshinis will go up by Re1. High-end restaurants will jack up the price by Rs2 per cup.
“Hoteliers are already hit by the rising sugar price in addition to the increased labour cost and rentals. Premium coffee powder per kilogram costs Rs250 while the tea powder costs Rs170 per kilogram. We have no other way but to increase the price,” he said.
It’s a sour story for sweets as well. According to Adiga, the prices of Bengali sweets, milk khoya, doodh peda and other milk-based sweets would be hiked.
“The prices of such sweets are set to go up by Rs10 to Rs20. Butter milk, curd and other items will be costly by Re1 in hotels,” he said.
The KMF Director (Marketing) AS Premnath said that the Federation will soon announce the increased prices of milk products like ghee, cheese, sweets etc being sold under Nandini.
Bangalore is not very happy. “Already various food items cost more and milk price rise is a daily burden. This would be an additional cost of Rs1,000 per annum for my family of three persons,” said Hemalatha BS, a housewife from Vijayanagar.
Reddy says the hike will encourage farmers to increase production.Bangalore needs 14 lakh litres of milk, 3 lakh litres of curd every day.
The KMF is struggling to keep this rising demand. The KMF has even stopped supply to Kerala and Andhra Pradesh to save enough for the city.
—Agencies