Manpower shortage, supply chain disruption dry up Pune’s milk demand

Collection hampered as villages shut borders, drivers refuse to transport to ‘affected’ cities

With Pune and Mumbai regions being the worst affected in the country due to the Covid-19 outbreak, milk suppliers are refusing to take the route reaching these cities, making the essential commodity scare in the regions.Hence, the major milk supplying unions to Pune and Mumbai like Gokul Milk, Sonai Milk, Chitale Milk and Krushna Milk are severely facing shortage of raw material and manpower after restrictions imposed by the central and state government.

A worker is seen sleeping in a shut restaurant near Mhatre bridge on Thursday. According to officials, a reason for the decline in milk demand is because it was majorly supplied to tea stalls, restaurants and sweet shops that are closed due to the lockdown. (Pratham Gokhale/HT Photo)

Along with this, the supply chain from the farmers has also been disrupted, after villages banned entry of outsiders fearing community transmission of the virus. In the cities too, residents are ensuring they do not step outside their homes and have stopped buying milk in large quantities.

Dattatray Ghanekar, managing director of Gokul milk, said, “Gokul milk’s total supply is 11.5 lakh litres in Pune, Mumbai and Kolhapur. The sale is down by 70,000 to 80,000 litres per day. We are facing a major problem of transport as driver and cleaners are afraid to travel to the affected regions and also because of the lockdown they fear police action against them.”

Some private dairies have brought down the price of milk for farmers by Rs 6 to Rs10 per litre to help them, but to no avail. Dairy industry operators said, “We are facing maximum problem at the marketing (supply) side in urban areas than collection in rural areas. As citizens are at home, instead of increasing, the demand for milk is coming down.”

Ghanekar said, “At the collection side, many village heads are not allowing farmers or tempos to go inside. Now, we are issuing circulars to such villages that milk is an essential commodity and its collection should be allowed. Another reason for the decline in the milk demand is because the tea stalls and sweet shops are closed due to the lockdown, which used to earlier buy a major share of the commodity.

Katraj Dairy’s managing director Vivek Shirsagar said, “We are facing a problem at the distribution and processing level due to less manpower. As many employees are not coming to work, it is difficult to package the product. As we are based in Pune, we are benefitting as other dairies have not been able to get milk supply to the city and residents are shifting to our product, which is helping us maintain our sales target.”

Chitale Dairy’s Shrikrishana Chitale said, “We are getting the supply from rural area and as vendors are not collecting milk, it has created a problem of distribution in the city. Police should cooperate and not beat up vendors and help in the smooth distribution of milk.”

Sonai Dairy’s chairman Dashtrath Mane said, “The workers are not coming to the plant. Out sale of two lakh litres has come down 50 per cent as truck drivers are not ready to transport milk. The main problem is with processing, transportation and marketing.”

Explaining the processing problems, Ghanekar adds, “We have only seven days worth of coal stock left and vehicle entry at Jaigad port (Ratnagiri) has been stopped. Hence, we are struggling to get coal used for processing of milk. If situation continues, it will difficult to supply milk to cities.” Ghanekar further added that the interstate ban of vehicular movement has also badly affected the supply of polythene liner. Polythene liner from Gujarat is used for packaging of milk.

Dasharath Mane, director Sonai Milk, said, “Even though milk comes under essential commodities, police officials are taking harsh action against our vehicles and our drivers and hencem we are facing difficulties in supplying milk to the cities.”

Idranil Chitale of Chitale Milk, said, “We are currently in talks with the government to work out a solution and we will ensure there is enough supply for the citizens.” Chitale Milk supplies 7 lakh litres of milk daily to Pune city.

Maharashtra milk commissioner Narendra Poyam said, “We have instructed police officials to give exemption to milk tankers as milk supply comes under essential services. As far as raw material supply is concerned (specifically polythene liner and coal) discussion is going on with stakeholders and soon we will take necessary steps.”