Team Herald
PONDA: The recent increase in prices of milk by Goa Dairy has helped it in procuring 2500 more litres of milk per day, said its Chairman Madhav Sahakari.
“To the extant our milk procurement has increased, to the same extant the procurement of SUMUL has decreased,” Sahakari said.
He was addressing the media after the annual general body meeting of Goa Dairy.
“Even though the government criticised us for hiking milk prices, it proved beneficial for us,” he said.
He said that by increasing the prices of milk sold to the consumers, the dairy was able to pay better price to its farmers. “By offering better price to the farmers, the Goa Dairy was able to influence as many as 40-50 farmers to return to its fold leaving SUMUL,” he said.
On SUMUL using the infrastructure setup by Goa Dairy, Sahakari said that not only the directors but also the milk supplying farmers are against the same. SUMUL has to setup its own infrastructure as per government condition, he said.
On the allegation that Goa Dairy has recruited excess staff, Sahakari said only 23 staff was recruited; according to him that does not amount to surplus staff. “Since the issue has been raised, the same will be discussed at the next meeting of the board of directors,” he said.
Sahakari acknowledged that when SUMUL was launched, the Goa Dairy board of directors (BoD) failed to take strategic decisions on reaching out to the farmers and countering the new entrant.
Earlier, the general body meeting witnessed some heated discussions on improving the affairs of Goa Dairy.
Gangaram Zore, a farmer who attended the meeting, said, “Competition by SUMUL has helped us in getting better price for the milk we are supplying to Goa Dairy, even though it is still not enough.”
“After Goa Dairy hiked milk prices, we get around Rs 3 extra per litter. But the rates offered to us by SUMUL are far better than what Goa Dairy offers even after the recent hikes. However, we are still supplying milk to Goa Dairy as we want a stable business,” Zore pointed out.
“If SUMUL leaves Goa in future, we will be helpless and so we want Goa Dairy to be run smoothly. We also expect a lot of improvement in Goa Dairy management,” Zore added.
