Milk imports soar as lumpy skin disease hits cattle stock
The Hindu
Milk prices have already jumped more than 15% to ₹56 rupees a litre over the past year — the fastest rise in a decade — making it difficult for the Union Government to bring retail inflation below the RBI’s target
Buying milk is getting expensive across the country and the price could soon hit an all-time high, forcing the world's biggest producer to step up imports to boost supplies and ease cost of living pressures.
Farmers are wrestling with a rare double whammy: the lethal lumpy skin disease in their cows and a drawdown in market-ready cattle stock after the COVID-19 pandemic slowed breeding.
Milk prices have already jumped more than 15% to ₹56 rupees a litre over the past year — the fastest rise in a decade — making it difficult for the Union Government to bring retail inflation below the RBI's target.
The soaring prices of milk and other basic goods is expected to become a political issue heading into State elections later this year.
"Any upside risk coming from higher milk prices is going to pose an additional challenge," said Upasna Bhardwaj, chief economist at India's Kotak Mahindra Bank.
"Since milk has a weightage of 6.6% in the consumer price index, any spike could have a reasonable implication on headline inflation," she said.
A 39% jump in exports of dairy products in 2022, followed by lower milk supplies, has already cut inventories of butter and skimmed milk powder (SMP), even as rising incomes lift demand for protein-rich dairy products, a key source of calcium, vitamins and protein for a large vegetarian population.