The price of Milkvita milk has been raised by Tk10 a litre, with the new price effective from 5 August, drawing some anger among buyers. But the Bangladesh Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Ltd, which produces Milkvita, says costs have risen and the price needed adjusting. Milkvita milk is being sold at the new price at local shops.
The Bangladesh Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Ltd said the cost of both collecting milk from grassroots farmers and processing it had risen, and that the farm-level collection cost had been increased from 1 August. Sellers said that while Milkvita’s price had gone up, no other milk price in the market had been raised.
As reasons for the increase, the organisation said the prices of everything from packaging materials to cattle feed had risen, and that recent rises in the prices of fuel oil, gas and electricity had pushed up production costs. Farmers had also long been demanding a price rise, and the decision was taken after weighing everything, said Milkvita chairman S M Amir Hamza Shatil.
“The production cost per litre of milk has risen by Tk11 to Tk11.5. We calculated that cost and raised the milk price to keep the organisation profitable, or at least balanced,” he said.
He said the factory’s electricity bill had risen, and that the cost of using LPG had increased because of the gas shortage. Higher fuel-oil prices had also raised transport costs. There was also the matter of protecting farmers’ interests, he said, because private companies had been buying milk at higher prices, cutting Milkvita’s collection; to hold on to that supply, the farm-level milk price had been raised by Tk3 a litre.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report