The demand for Aavin milk has gone up as private dairies increased the retail prices of milk packets last week.
Compared to the first week of August, Aavin is selling 50,000 more litres of milk every day. This includes 20,000 litres sold in Chennai city alone, according to data submitted by Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation (TNCMPF) Limited, which sells close to 29 lakh litres of milk every day
Many tea or juice shops and hotels have started buying Aavin, which sells milk at 40 to 51 per litre. Whereas private brands cost at least 60 per litre. Tea shops claim that they could save 1,500 to 2,000 every day by switching to Aavin.
Though private dairies have revised the prices of other milk products like curd, ghee and butter too, there is not much change in Aavin’s sales of these products. This indicates that residents still haven’t migrated to Aavin, and Aavin will continue to promote these products among them too, said N Subbaiyan, managing director of TNCMPF.
T Sadagopan, a consumer rights’ activist from Chennai said, “We hope Aavin doesn’t increase the prices due to market pressure because the prices of essential commodities have gone up of late.” At a press meet, Tamil Nadu milk and dairy development minister S M Nasar assured that there were no plans to increase retail prices of all three categories of milk.
On the other hand, milk dealers say that Aavin’s lower-rung authorities are creating an artificial demand for their products. “There has been a 20% drop in supply from Ambattur, Madhavaram and Sholinganallur units,” said S A Ponnusamy, founder-president, Tamil Nadu milk dealers employees welfare association, who disputed the claim that Aavin retail sales had gone up.
