West Bengal's state-run dairy introducing butter in the market

West Bengal's state-run dairy introducing butter in the market

 If corporate giants launch a brand new product to make profit, the state government may go for a new launch for a completely different reason: only to reduce its huge burden of loss.

Such is the case with the state animal resources department, which is launching the ""Haringhata Pasteurized Table Butter"" to cope with its huge loss that runs into approximately Rs 50-60 crore annually. Worse, the loss could increase further due to market indications that there may be a much higher supply of milk in the domestic market this season.

Plans are thus under way to launch a pasteurized butter in a yellow and brown 100 gm pack. The state government wants to fix a price that is lower than the other available 100 gram butter brands available in the market. Amul, Vijaya, Gowardhan are some of the largest producers of butter in the country.

The state owned Haringhata dairy - that supplies 40,000-42,000 litres of milk every day - sources its milk from the state farms, the ""bull mother farms"" and the National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) - the last two containing breeds for research purposes.

At the moment, Haringhata supplies double toned milk which is priced at Rs 18 per litre; it is an old product on which no price has been increased recently.

To make up for the loss however, the state government has, in the lines of Mother Dairy, also introduced newer varieties of milk for Haringhata. This includes the toned milk, which is priced at Rs 28 per litre and the fresh cow milk, which costs Rs 30 per litre. Other than that, there is the Haringhata special milk for the last few years, priced at Rs 24 per litre.

Other Haringhata products include ghee, lassi and milk chocolate, but none of these is marketed well. The annual losses are too much to handle when the employees' salary is included, and the state is now at best trying to prevent further loss. ""Already there is an indication that the produce in the market will be higher this season, and we are getting the hint of a 'flush'. If the produce is higher, then the state government has to purchase the supply from farmers in Bengal because otherwise they will go into distress,"" said a senior official.

The animal resources welfare department had to thus devise ways of using the surplus supply of milk for the production of butter, so that the excess supply could be utilized in the butter production and bring some returns. The other reason of course is to work out different ways of reducing losses and this is possible through launching new products that find more acceptability as there are strict instructions from the top that the price of milk cannot be increased under any circumstances.