Prices of Amul milk to rise from Tuesday

The prices of milk under brand 'Amul' are set to rise ranging from Rs1 to Rs2 per litre from Tuesday in Gujarat and the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation will soon take a call on hiking the same in rest of the country, a senior official said.

GCMMF, which markets its product under 'Amul', hiked the prices by Rs two per litre for its Gold and Shakti milk and also for cow milk and tea special milk whereas the prices of Tazza and Slim and Trim milk will go up by Rs1 per litre.

"The price rise will be effective from April 10 in Ahmedabad, Anand, Kheda, Saurashtra and Kutch," GCMMF Managing Director RS Sodhi said.

"The price rise will be in Gujarat first and then we will take the call to increase them in other parts of the country," Sodhi said.

Dairy cooperatives affiliated to GCMMF functioning in different districts of Gujarat have been told to make the raise effective in their respective areas in the next week, he said.

At the beginning of the week, Sodhi had indicated a price hike by saying "with a rising inflation, we need to compensate the farmers as well".

In FY12, GCMMF, which supplies milk to major cities across the country, had announced a hike of around 14-15% in milk prices.

Subsequently, the milk prices have risen to over Rs38 per litre from Rs20-22 per litre around three years ago.

The new rates will come into effect, despite the federation being flush with milk. GCMMF is getting nearly 20% more milk since Diwali last year on the back of higher remunerative prices being paid to farmers.

The federation has clocked nearly USD 2.4 billion (Rs11,660 crore) turnover in 2011-12.