Aavin is steadily showing remarkable growth in T.N.: Dairy Development Minister

Aavin is performing well and has been showing remarkable growth across the State, said Tamil Nadu Dairy Development Minister Mano Thangaraj in Madurai on Saturday.

After inspecting the Aavin unit in Madurai, he told mediapersons that Aavin alone has been giving milk at a uniform price to its large network of consumers without any increase, which was not the case with private players. Moreover, for the private sector, profit is the only motive, while it was not so with Aavin, which had major role to play in the welfare of the milk producers’ on one hand and catering to the needs of lakhs of consumers of the products on the other hand.

There has been a steady growth in both the procurement of milk and sales, he said and added that last year, the procurement stood at 1.20 lakh litre, while now, it was around 1.70 lakh litres. ‘We will soon cross the 2 lakh litre mark for procurement,” he said.

Aavin has provided ₹3 as an incentive to milk producers and there were numerous measures being taken to improving yield, the Minister said. For milk producers, the T.N. government had given loans to the tune of ₹90 crore last year through primary cooperative banks/societies in Madurai district. Officials have been instructed to enhance the loans to eligible farmers in other parts of the State too, he said.

The government had also made it mandatory for the farmers to avail of insurance, as in the event of any contingency, such as crop disease or cattle fatalities, they could be compensated.

Aavin has had 25,000 milch animals insured and even those who did not supply through the milk producers union were being sensitised to insure their milch animals, Mr. Thangaraj said.

‘Logistics problems being looked into’

The Minister said that in just about a year, Aavin had increased its milk procurement levels by eight lakh litres. This was a remarkable achievement, he said.

On the complaints about delays in the distribution of milk sachets to agents and depots, he said that the milk major had no issues with production as it was well planned. The reason for delay could be due to logistics issues, which he said, they were addressing. Aavin is also examining methods to improve its cold chain management end-to-end, he added.