Ram Chandra Bhatt in Kathmandu, translated from Nagarik, October 14
Up to three years ago, a glut in the supply of milk would call for ‘milk holidays’ in the nation when Kathmandu based dairies would withhold from buying farmers’ milk. This would drive farmers to drain away rivers of excess milk. But today, the Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) has begun to import milk from India in large quantities. The corporation that requires a minimum of 0.15 million litres of milk has managed to collect 0.1 million litres thus far.
“We have been managing our business by buying 50,000 litres of milk from the Patna Dairy in India,” said DDC’s general manager, Ajjab Lal Yadav, to Nagarik on Wednesday.
About a year and a half ago, excess supplies had let the DDC export 1.8 million litres of milk to the Patna Dairy. But since 18 August, it has been importing milk from them.
Shortage of milk has also stopped the operation of Biratnagar’s powder milk factory. Sujal Dairy of Pokhara, which has been producing powder milk for two years, too, is operating in half capacity. “We require 0.1 million litres of milk per day, but manage to get only 45,000 litres,” says Niranjan Shrestha, director of Sujal Dairy.
50 dairies were established to end the need for a milk holiday within the past two years. Two to three small-scale dairies opened up monthly within the capital itself. Two large-scaled dairies that required 0.1 million litres of milk per day had opened up too. But recent times indicate that this trend has stopped, and Nepal has turned into an importer of milk instead.
Kathmandu’s DDC has been buying liquid milk from Bihar and dispensing it through the distribution centre in Hetauda since a couple of months. Similarly, Chitwan Milk Limited has been buying 0.1 million litres of milk per day from India too.