Milk being procured from members at a Milk Producers Co operative Society in Tamil Nadu.
| Photo Credit: File Photo
The Tiruchi Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, popularly known as Tiruchi Aavin, continues to face issues in milk procurement due to the prolonged summer and competitive prices offered by the private dairies.The union, one of the oldest and highest milk procurement and processing unions attached to the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation, procured milk from about 51,000 member suppliers attached to 612 cooperative societies in Tiruchi, Ariyalur, and Perambalur districts. After the creation of a new Union with the inclusion of Ariyalur and Perambalur districts that came into effect a few months ago, the Tiruchi Aavin procures only from farmers in Tiruchi district.Milk procurement generally declines in March, April, and May due to unfavourable conditions for milch animals. It slowly picks up momentum from June and July and reaches peak in December and January. However, the district has not received notable rainy days during the Southwest monsoon so far. Moreover, the summer-like situation continues even now, thereby causing problems for watering the milch animals. The sweltering heat also affects the health of them.There has been hardly any green pastures in any parts of the district due to the poor rainfall. The farmers depend upon dry fodder for the cattle.In addition to them, the private dairies offer competitive prices to the farmers for milk procurement. While Aavin offers Rs.38 a litre of high quality milk including incentive price, industry sources say private players offer at least ₹42 to ₹45 a litre. Moreover, the private players prefer to accept milk without following quality yardsticks. Hence, the farmers tend to sell milk to private dairies, thereby leading to a dip in milk procurement by Aavin.According to sources, Tiruchi Aavin milk procurement hovers around 1.70 lakh as against the normal quantity of 2.2 lakh. It is set to come down further in the weeks to come as prolonged dry weather is likely to cause more trouble to the procurement plan of Aavin.The dip in procurement has cast a shadow on local sales in Tiruchi. With the private dairies increasing the sale prices, many customers have turned towards Aavin milk in recent weeks. However, according to sources, the Aavin struggles to cash in on the demand. It supplies about 1.65 lakh litres against the demand of 2 lakh litres in Tiruchi. Claiming that Aavin had reduced the normal supply, its agents thronged the Collector Office on Monday and presented petitions to the Collector.Sources in the Aavin told The Hindu that the aggressive procurement policies of private dairies had been a challenge to milk procurement. The prolonged dry weather had also contributed to the issues. Steps were being taken to increase the procurement. Published - July 28, 2026 09:53 pm IST
