Kerala self-sufficient in milk production, cuts purchase

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala  has achieved the  goal of self-sufficiency in milk production ena-bling it to avoid buying milk from Tamil Nadu dairy farmers, according to senior officials.  However, blaming it on Kerala’s parochial politics,  hundreds of Tamil  farmers  on Thursday spilled milk on the road at Walayar as a mark of protest.

Thanks to the good summer rain, there is surplus  milk procurement by Kerala Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (Milma) in Malabar which has peaked to 6.15 lakh litres per day this month. With this, the unions in Kerala have pressurised the state to put an end to the purchase of milk from  the “border societies” where Tamil farmers sell milk.

“We have at least 1.24 lakh litres  surplus of milk per day in Malabar. At least 30,000 litres of it is being rerouted to Kochi, which has a slight milk deficit. Thiruvananthapuram,  which has high scarcity, depends more on out-of-state milk.  We have to curtail milk from other states so that our farmers get good price,” said Malabar Regional Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union  chairman Surendran Nair.

Milma chairman P.T. Gopala Kurup confirmed that procurement of milk from TN had declined. “Milk from Karnataka is enough to meet the demands in Thiruvananthapuram,” he said.