Ongole: Milk consumption up in lockdown

Ongole: While the lockdown has affected all sectors, the positive side of it is that it has helped the dairy industry as the consumption of milk has increased in the rural and urban households, but the sale of milk byproducts like curd, buttermilk, lassi, and others has gone down, say the dairy officials from various districts.

The Ongole Dairy, which lost its sheen and fame already due to various reasons, has dropped to the least procurement and production levels in the last few years. After losing the business to private dairies, Ongole Dairy was able to procure an average of 19,000 liters per day last April, and almost the same has continued this year, even in the lockdown.

One of the officers in the sales department informed that they are selling the milk every day, as the demand from the public increased now. Requesting anonymity, the officer said that the sale of milk packets increased by nearly 15 percent in the lockdown. He said that they reduced the production of buttermilk, lassi, etc, as there was almost zero business in many areas. He said that the milk powder unit had not operated for the last two weeks, as there was no supply of excess milk from the National Dairy Development Federation.

The situation is similar in Vijaya Dairy also. The manager of Tiruvur unit of Vijaya Dairy, Vinjamuri Uday Kiran, explained that they procured an average of 1.60 lakh liters per day in last April and this month it was increased to 1.76 lakh liters per day.

The sale was 2.72 lakh liters per day in 2019 while in the April lockdown, it increased to 2.93 lakh liters per day, he added. But, the production of milk byproducts had dropped from 1, 20, 448 kgs to 77,070 kgs when compared to April of 2019 and 2020. "Perhaps, the families were spending more time together in the lockdown while consuming tea or coffee or savoring items made out of milk made by milk and it is the reason behind the increase of sale of milk this month," he added.