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A Sudha Dairy outlet in Ranchi on Wednesday.
Picture by Hardeep Singh
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Ranchi is depending on Bihar to be neighbourly during Makar Sankranti where milk is concerned.
Sudha Dairy, a government subsidiary that supplies the bulk of milk to the city, is procuring the festive extra from Bihar dairies. Normally, milk consumption in Ranchi is less than 1 lakh litres a day, but it more than doubles during Sankranti as people celebrate with traditional home-made milk-based sweets.
“There will be no shortage of milk during the festive season,” A.K. Sinha, assistant general manager of Sudha Dairy said, adding they had imported an insulated rail milk tanker of 40,000 litres from Barauni in Bihar two days ago.
“We are also in the process to procure 40,000 litres from Samastipur dairy and another 30, 000 litres from its Arrah counterpart to meet the local demand,” Sinha said.
There will be no problem for milk and curds as Sudha is continuously supplying milk to 1,200 retailers, he said.
He also said that the sale of milk had increased this year.
“Last year, on January 10, we sold 85,000 litres. This year, on the same day, the sale of milk touched 1 lakh litres. On January 11, 2011, the sale was 1.1 lakh litres, while today it is 1.54 lakh litres respectively. Consumption is showing a northward trend,” Sinha said.
However, consumers said last year there was a shortage of milk, not its demand.
“Last year, there was huge crisis of milk at the time of Makar Sankranti that caused panic among people. This year, it seems officials are prepared in advance, which is excellent,” smiled homemaker Nidhi Rai of Bariatu. “Milk products are very important for the festival,” she added.
Satendra Singh, proprietor of Sudha Dairy outlet at Doranda, said that they were able to fulfill the extra demand this year. “On an average, I sell 500 litres of milk a day. But in the festive season, the daily demand shoots up to around 1,000-1,200 litres,” Singh said.
The capital’s milk demand, which hovers around 95,000 litres a day, is met by Bihar State Milk Co-operative Federation Limited, which markets its products under the Sudha Dairy label.
The capital has 700 Sudha Diary outlets. In all, Jharkhand has around 38 lakh milking cows producing 36 lakh litres a day.
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