Local dairy farmers across the country are now struggling for survival. 90% of the milk they produce remains unsold due to the countrywide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The pandemic has reduced milk demand, cutting prices and threatening the promising business on which thousands of people depend for their livelihoods.
“Each day, around 1.2 crore liters of milk worth Tk60 crore remains unsold, which is 90% of our production,” Said Shah Emran, general secretary of the Bangladesh Dairy Farmers’ Association (BDFA).
In such a crisis, the entire dairy sector is at risk of survival. Marginal farmers have already lost their business, he said, and expressed fear that the sector would collapse if the situation continued.
Emran said that they used to sell 84% of their produced milk to localities and sweets shops. "But shut down markets including, sweets shops, have impacted our sales badly," he added.
“Milk is a perishable item. Farmers have no technology to preserve it and everyday they are incurring huge losses,” he continued.
Talking to Dhaka Tribune, several farmers said milk was now selling at Tk20-30 a liter in villages which was earlier Tk50-70. It dropped to Tk40 from Tk80 in cities.
Ripon Hasan, a dairy farmer from Khilgaon in the capital, said he used to sell around 70 liters of milk daily to his regular customers, but the sales dropped to 7-10 kg a day due to coronavirus.
“I incur a loss of Tk1500 everyday now for the unsold milk,” he said, and added that the price of cattle feed, on the other hand, has increased by 20-30%, intensifying their sufferings.
Rawnak Mahmud, secretary at the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock said that the government announced a Tk5,000 crore special fund for the agriculture sector. But we are not yet clear how much of that will go to the dairy sector.
“If we find the initiative is not enough, we will reconsider,” he said.
Demands of farmers
The BDFA has urged the government to compel milk processing companies to buy fresh milk from farmers in this crisis to save the dairy sector.
“If companies collect milk from local farms and process it into other products, all locally produced milk can be saved,” said the BDFA general secretary.
Emran also said the government has announced loans for farmers at 4% interest rate recently, declaring Tk5,000 crore for the agriculture sector.
The rate should be lowered further, he said.
“Farmers have no income now. Many of them cannot even buy food to eat. How will they pay this interest on loans?” he said.
Emran finished with saying that electricity bills also need to be reduced during this crisis.
