The price of packaged liquid milk has risen by up to Tk 10 a litre for almost every brand on the market, Ittefaq's digital desk reports. Last month Milk Vita raised its half-litre pack by Tk 5 to Tk 60 and its one-litre pack by Tk 10 to Tk 110; Farm Fresh, Aarong and Pran Dairy half-litres now sell at Tk 55 and litres at Tk 110 to 115.

The processors say the cost of producing a litre has risen with packaging materials, gas, electricity and transport, forcing an adjustment. Milk Vita chairman S M Amir Hamza Shatil said packaging costs had risen sharply and higher gas and fuel prices had pushed up transport, leaving the cooperative running at a loss, so it had no choice but to raise prices.

Milk Vita also said the price it pays farmers for milk has been raised by Tk 3 a litre, so Tk 3 of the Tk 10 retail increase reaches the dairy farmer.

Retailers say sales of liquid milk have fallen since the increase and complain that nearly all brands raised prices by Tk 10 a litre at once. A shopper in Dhaka's Rampura said milk is a core part of a balanced diet and such a large one-step rise was wrong; another consumer said she had stopped giving her child milk regularly after the increase.

Coming amid rising prices of daily essentials, the new milk price adds to the burden on low- and middle-income households, the report says, and consumers want the price of this nutritional staple kept within reach. For dairy farmers the question is how much of the processors' increase reaches the farm gate; on Milk Vita's own figures, Tk 3 a litre this time.

Source: Ittefaq — Reporting: Ittefaq digital desk