The new price by dairy major Amul on its milk brands will come into effect from May 21 onwards (File)

Amul will increase the price of its milk by Rs 2 per litre across several states from Tuesday to compensate for an increase in production costs, news agency PTI quoted the dairy major as saying in a release today. It had last revised the price in March 2017.

Gujarat, West Bengal, Delhi-NCR, Kolkata, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra are among the markets that would be impacted by the price hike, the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation - which sells milk and dairy products under the Amul brand - said. With this, the price of an 500 millilitre pack of 'Amul Gold' in Ahmedabad will now be revised to Rs 27, 'Amul Shakti' to Rs 25, 'Amul Taaza' to Rs 21 and 'Amul Diamond' to Rs 28, it said.

The cooperative clarified that the measure was intended at giving milk producers their due, and not because there has been a change in Gujarat cow milk prices. "The increase in milk prices by Rs 2 per litre has happened after a gap of two years with an aim to provide remunerative milk purchase price to our milk producers owing to a drop in milk production and increase in cost of production," it said, adding that the measure would motivate milk producers to bring in new livestock and encourage them to remain in the occupation.

PTI quoted the cooperative as saying that national and international dairy markets have witnessed adverse conditions over the last two years, including a steep decline in the prices of commodities such as skimmed milk produce and butter oil, lowering producer prices of milk across India and affecting milk producers adversely. "However, the last one year has witnessed a major increase in the price of cattle feed ingredients such as de-oiled rice bran (by 61 per cent), rice polish fine (22 per cent), molasses (82 per cent) and maize (63 per cent), resulting in an over 15 per cent hike in the price of cattle feed," it stated, adding that the rate of green fodder was also hiked by over 100 per cent this summer.

Amul ensures that milk producers get almost 80 paise of every rupee paid by consumers, the cooperative added.

(With inputs from PTI)