News Tamil Nadu

“Govt Is Hiking Milk Prices Indirectly Through Delight Purple Packet”, Says Head of TN Milk Dealers Association Ponnusamy

November 22, 2023
The Commune

Aavin has been in the news for the past few days especially after the Green Magic variant was announced to be discontinued citing “cost cutting”. What is the real reason for this? In a video interview with News18, the head of TN Milk Dealers Association Ponnusamy has come out with some details.

Answering a question on the urgent need to stop the Green packet, Ponnusamy said, “There has been a drastic reduction in milk procurement in Aavin. After the DMK came to power, it has reduced much more than in the ADMK regime by more than 10 lakh litres. They have sold all the available milk powders and butter to private businesses. Now they are procuring milk powder and butter from north Indian states and mixing it to make high-fat and low-fat milk. For example, we can take this green packet. This green packet contains 4.5% fat. When you consider 4.5% fat, cow milk contains only 3-4% fat and a maximum of 4.3% to 4.5%. So for this 4.5% fat and this 6% orange coloured packet, this is 6% fat. So for this 6% fat, we must have butter in reserve. Since there is no butter in our reserves, they are buying from north Indian states.”

He added, “When they procure milk from the dairy owners, they buy it at a price of ₹35 per litre. But since they are procuring milk powder and butter, the cost of one litre is more than ₹60. This is how much it takes to make Green Magic milk. If it is the premium orange-coloured milk packet, it will cost more than that. So to reduce these expenses, last February in Coimbatore, they introduced a new product called Aavin Delite which they labelled as Cow Milk. Both variants are priced at ₹22 per half litre. So in February, in Coimbatore, what they did was, in the green-coloured packet, they added the text “cow milk” on the side for the same price of ₹22 and mentioned it as 3.5% fat. Green packets must contain 4.5% fat. The purple colour packet, Aavin Delite has 3.5% fat and labelled as cow milk.

Both are priced at the same rate. So when 1% fat is reduced, the profit for Aavin is ₹8 per litre. So for the common people, the hike in the cost of milk is ₹8. They have unprecedentedly increased the prices of ghee and butter after the DMK came to power. For a litre of ghee, they have increased the price by ₹225 in 18 months. They have increased the price of butter by ₹200 per kilo. This never happened in any regime.”

When the journalist said that Aavin claimed that the Green packets were not completely stopped from circulation, the numbers were brought down. Ponnusamy said, “As mentioned before, in Coimbatore, in February, they sold the packets with the label cow milk and entirely stopped the supply of Green packets. When we protested the move, the officials then told us that the Green packets were not stopped completely, it has just been reduced they said. What started in Coimbatore and Tirupur followed suit everywhere else in the state. On this day, no districts have green packet milk available. Only the Aavin Delite which has 3.5% fat is being produced. In Chennai alone, only 50% of the milk is green packets. They have cut down on the Green packets already. They are making us sell this variant forcibly to our consumers. They claim that people are buying it because they like it. The minister claims that the Delite variant is fast-selling today. How is this possible?

For example, if a consumer buys 500 litres of milk, if you force him to buy 250 litres of Aavin Delite compulsorily and say that if he fails to do so, he won’t get any milk. This is the situation that Aavin is forcing everyone to be in. When you force something like this, how can I sell the milk to the people who need it? We are forced to submit to Aavin’s compulsion.”

Millions of children and elderly individuals depend on Aavin milk, and it is now a big question if they will receive it with the same fat content.

Ponnusamy adds, “They will have to go to a private dairy brand only. The FSSAI has advised us to produce 4 types of milk. In Chapters 2, 2.1, and 2.2, they have clearly specified 4 types of milk – 1.5% double-toned milk, 3% toned milk, 4.5% standardised milk, and 6% full cream milk. Now what they are doing is, on the cover of this Aavin Delite milk which claims to have 3.5% fat, they have mentioned Toned Milk at the back side of the packet, where no one can find it easily. Toned milk refers to milk with 3% fat, Aavin Nice has 3% fat and is the toned milk variant. But in Aavin Delite, you are calling it Toned milk after claiming 3.5% fat content. Won’t the children suffer from nutritional deficiency?”

Ponnusamy continues, “According to the Indian Diary Association and the World Health Organization, 4.5% fat content in milk that is found in green packets is necessary for healthy growth. As far as cow’s milk is concerned, it can contain up to 4.5% fat. When you reduce the fat content to 3%, you are already reducing the fat content of cow’s milk. If you reduce it by 1.5%, you are reducing the fat content. Won’t there be nutritional deficiencies or not? Pregnant women, children, elderly can consume the 4.5% standardised milk as it meets their nutritional requirements. This milk variant has been available in Aavin for more than 50 years. It has been available in packet form for 40 years now. If you stop a product that has been available for more than 40 years, you must have released a GO. When they came to power, they reduced the price by 3 rupees, they released a GO. If you reduce or increase the selling price, a GO must be passed and only then a press release is done. But now, without any government order, the government has announced this.”

Aavin was advertised as the closest to mother’s milk but now the Tamil Nadu government led by the DMK is hell-bent on wrecking the organisation that will affect the entire population in the state.

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