
Milk prices in Maharashtra will rise by Rs 2 per litre for both cow and buffalo milk from August 11. The Milk Producers and Processors Welfare Association approved the hike, citing higher…
Milk prices in Maharashtra will rise by Rs 2 per litre for both cow and buffalo milk from August 11. The Milk Producers and Processors Welfare Association approved the hike, citing higher costs of diesel (up Rs 10 per litre), packaging (up 30 per cent) and procurement. Dairy product prices may go up by up to 10 per cent.
On the same day, the government told Parliament it has no proposal to introduce a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for milk, saying rates are set by cooperatives and private dairies based on market conditions. Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh listed dairy infrastructure built by March 2026: 36,283 new village-level societies, 168 lakh litres per day of chilling capacity, and 76,748 quality-testing devices. India's milk output rose to 248 million metric tonnes in 2024-25, a 69 per cent increase from 146 MMT a decade ago.


The usual blame game has started: some say dairies are profiteering, others say the government has abandoned farmers by ruling out a milk MSP. Neither side is quite honest. Diesel is up Rs 10 a litre and packaging costs have climbed 30 per cent, those are real numbers from the producers, not rhetoric. But with India's milk output rising 69 per cent in a decade and 36,000 new dairy cooperatives set up, why can't efficiency gains absorb some of that shock? The real test will come when the next procurement season begins: does the farmer's share rise along with the retail price, or does it get squeezed again?
Sources (3): news.abplive.com, indiatvnews.com, hindustantimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 3 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 3 sources.