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In a big blow ahead of the festival season starting next month, the Mumbai Milk Producers Association (MMPA) announced a wholesale price hike of Rs 2 per litre for fresh buffalo milk in the city from September 1, an official said here on Wednesday. 

The unanimous decision was taken at a general body meeting of the MMPA on Wednesday, said it's General Secretary Kasham Kashmere. 

The move is likely to trigger a price rise in all other types of milk and milk-related products during the festivals of Ganeshotsav, Navratri, Diwali, etc., over the next few months.

MMPA Executive Committee member C.K. Singh said the price of buffalo milk - which is sold by over 3,000 retailers in the country’s commercial capital - will go up from Rs 87 per litre to Rs 89 per litre, and will remain in force for six months, after which the MMPA will review the price. 

“With the wholesale price hike by Rs 2/litre from September 1, the retail rates are expected to shoot up to Rs 93/litre or even up to Rs 98/litre depending on the localities and local demand,” Singh told IANS.

This will be the second hike coming after a year when wholesale buffalo milk price was hiked from Rs 85/litre to Rs 87/litre, hitting the domestic budgets of the poor and middle-class families hard.

The latest price hike could adversely impact the demand for milk which usually shoots up by 25-30 per cent during the festival season when large quantities of sweetmeats are prepared.

The MMPA members felt that since the prices of milch animals as well their food items like dana, tuvar, chuni, chana-chuni, etc., have gone up by an average 20-25 per cent, besides a steep hike in the rates of grass, hay, pinda, etc., the rate of milk should also be increased, Singh said. 

Mumbai consumes over 50 lakh litres of buffalo milk daily, of which more than 700,000 litres are supplied by the MMPA through its chain of dairies, neighbourhood retailers, and farms spread in and around the city.

However, all the cow and buffalo milk producer associations and branded companies had avoided the regular hike in February-March 2024 owing to the Lok Sabha elections. 

Recently, certain wholesalers and major branded producers of cow milk in Maharashtra had hiked the price of milk by Rs 2/litre.

Now with the upcoming price hike by the MMPA, they are expected to follow suit, putting further strain on domestic finances from next month.