Costly milk leaves a sour taste in Deepavali sweets

Customers will have to shell out more to buy delicacies this festive season as sweet makers have increased the price of products following the hike in milk prices. Milk suppliers, cooperatives and dairy farmers say the shortage in supply brought about by the outbreak of lumpy skin disease and the rise in input costs are driving up prices

The aroma of freshly made fluffy, spongy rasgullas and gulab jamuns fills the air at Chhotu Motu Joshi, a famous confectionery store run by Rishi Mohan Joshi, a fourth-generation sweet maker, in Rajasthan’s Bikaner district. With Deepavali just days away and the demand for sweets doubling, Mr. Joshi is finding it tough to meet his shop’s milk requirement as supply has been hit following the outbreak of lumpy skin disease, which has severely affected cattle in the State.

Mr. Joshi says four families that run dairy farms have been supplying milk to his shop for years, but now he has been forced to reach out to local vendors to plug the shortfall. “We use only cow milk to prepare sweets. But over the past two months, its price has shot up from ₹35-₹40 a litre to ₹60-₹65,” he says, adding that his shop’s milk requirement jumps from 300-500 litres a day to 1,000 litres during the festive season.

“The rising cost of milk products such as ghee and khoya is prompting us to raise the price of sweets. The cost of khoya, which is used to make gulab jamun and barfi, has risen from ₹190-₹200 a kg to ₹260-₹270. The price of a 15 kg tin of ghee has increased from ₹6,000 to ₹9,000. There has been no intervention from the government. Our profit margins have dipped as stiff competition prevents us from hiking the rates of sweets at one go. We used to charge ₹170-₹180 for a kg of rasgulla. Now, we sell it for ₹210,” Mr. Joshi says.

With sweet makers like Mr. Joshi raising the rate of products following the hike in milk prices, customers will have to shell out more to buy delicacies this festive season. Milk suppliers, cooperatives and dairy farmers say a shortage in supply owing to the outbreak of lumpy skin disease and the rise in input costs are driving up milk prices.

A dairy shop owner in east Delhi, who did not wish to be named, says there was an apprehension that milk prices would increase as supply in most farms in Rajasthan had reduced by three lakh litres a day due to the spread of lumpy skin disease. “Milk is an essential commodity in most households, but people have reduced their consumption due to the price hike,” he says, adding that the prices are expected to rise further.

Over the past year, the prices of various sweets have increased in Delhi: sevpak (₹690 a kg to ₹720), Karachi halwa (₹690 to ₹720), besan ladoo (₹690 to ₹720) and sohan halwa (₹800 to ₹840).

Kunal Balani, a partner at the 121-year-old Chaina Ram Sindhi Confectioners in Chandni Chowk, says sweets in his shop now cost ₹30-₹40 more as the price of a 15 kg tin of ghee has risen from ₹5,000 to ₹9,000 and a kg of khoya has increased from ₹290 to ₹400. “Ideally, we should hike prices at least by another ₹20, but we can’t afford to lose customers just to make a profit.”