Milk: Pricier at retail level, yet farmers deprived of fair price | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
June 12, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2025
Milk: Pricier at retail level, yet farmers deprived of fair price

Bazaar

Shawkat Ali
19 May, 2022, 12:00 pm
Last modified: 19 May, 2022, 03:28 pm

Related News

  • Meat, eggs and milk to be sold at affordable prices at 25 spots in Dhaka
  • Whole milk and milk fat have no major impact on lipid metabolism: study
  • CVASU introduces milk analyser; will detect adulteration, presence of protein, infection
  • Reliance on milk import must be reduced: Livestock adviser
  • Milk Vita project axed after 6 years and spending Tk80cr

Milk: Pricier at retail level, yet farmers deprived of fair price

Aarong has increased milk price by Tk10 per litre, while Milk Vita, Pran Dairy and Akij Food and Beverage are in the process of raising prices

Shawkat Ali
19 May, 2022, 12:00 pm
Last modified: 19 May, 2022, 03:28 pm

The hiked price of milk at the consumer level has increased the profit of milk processing companies, but that has not been of benefit to farmers as the price at farm level has not increased in proportion to the jump in their production cost.

Dairy farmers say the cost of milk production has gone up in the last one year as the price of animal feed has doubled. However, the returns they receive for their product from the milk processing and marketing companies have not increased proportionately.

Aarong Dairy, a social enterprise of Brac, has increased the price of milk by Tk7 per half a litre to Tk45 and by Tk10 per litre to Tk80 at the consumer level.

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

For the last one year, the company has been paying Tk38.55 per litre of milk – Tk1.5-1.75 more compared to the previous year, said dairy farmers in Pabna.

However, sources at Aarong Dairy said during the last one year, they have been paying the farmers Tk4.50 more per litre compared to the previous year.

Infographic: TBS
Infographic: TBS

Brac Enterprises Senior Director Mohammad Anisur Rahman told TBS, "We have increased the price of milk at the farmer level twice in a year. The cost of packaging, transportation, distribution has increased and so the price of the product has increased too."

In addition, the prices of raw materials required in processing, packaging and some other materials have increased by 15-40%. Transportation and distribution costs have risen by about 30% since the rise in fuel prices a few months ago, said Aarong officials.

Apart from Aarong, leading companies like Milk Vita, Pran Dairy, and Akij Food and Beverage Ltd are also in the process of raising prices of milk.

An official of Milk Vita, which operates under the Rural Development and Cooperative Division, said the company has appealed to the division to increase the price of milk by Tk10.

It is working on a proposal on providing a Tk10 government subsidy per litre of milk to dairy farmers, said Md Mahfuzul Haque, deputy secretary and general manager (administration, finance and audit) at Milk Vita.

Under the proposal, in addition to the price at which the company will buy milk from the farmers, another Tk10 per litre will be subsidised by the government.

Farmers in Pabna said currently they have to buy khoil (mustard cake), bran and ground maize at around Tk50 per kg, which is almost double the price compared to the previous year.

Shah Emran, general secretary of Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association, told The Business Standard, "The price of wheat bran a year ago was Tk1,100-1,200 (50 kg sacks), which is currently Tk2,050. The price of all animal feed has increased by at least 40-50%, but the price of milk at the farm level has not gone up."

"Farmers are deprived of fair prices, while consumers are under pressure due to the jump in the prices of processed milk. The government needs a specific policy on the price of milk for farmers," he added.

According to dairy farmers and processing companies, the price of raw milk is determined mainly by the amount of fat contained. 

Farmers usually produce milk with 4-4.5% fat, which fetches a maximum Tk43 per litre.

The price of milk with 5.5-7% fat is Tk51.90-65.25, but only 2-3% farmers produce milk with such high fat.

Farmers said most of the milk is now priced at Tk40-45 per litre at farm level. On the other hand, milk is usually sold in the village markets for Tk55-60.

Farmers who produce a large quantity of milk every day have developed a relationship with the large companies as the demand for their product in the nearby markets is very low. So, they have to sell milk to the companies despite the fact that their income does not keep pace with the expenditure.

Milk Vita collects about 1.5 lakh litre milk from farmers every day. The farmers under this company have been deprived of a fair price of milk for a long time and so many of them no longer want to supply milk to it.

In this regard, an official of Milk Vita said the company could not collect the expected amount of milk from the farmers, so the company may make a loss this year.

Pran Dairy officials declined to comment on the price hike, saying that they will talk to the media only after the new price is effective.

According to the Department of Livestock Services, there are around 20 lakh dairy farmers in Bangladesh who produce around 1 crore tonne of milk every year. The leading milk processing companies are preparing milk and dairy products by processing around 7.5 lakh tonnes of milk, which is 7.5% of the milk produced here.

Economy / Top News / Industry

Milk / dairy

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner showing part of its registration "VT-ANB" in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave
    Air India plane crash: More than 100 bodies brought to hospital in Ahmedabad, police say
  • CA Yunus meets King Charles
    CA Yunus meets King Charles
  • File Photo of Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus: UNB
    Air India flight crash: CA Yunus writes to Modi, offers Bangladesh's full support

MOST VIEWED

  • File photo of ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Photo: Collected
    Joy spends Eid with Hasina in India: Indian media
  • Infofgraphics: TBS
    DGHS issues 11-point directive to prevent spread of Covid-19 in Bangladesh
  • Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    UK crime agency now freezes assets of ex-land minister Saifuzzaman: AJ
  • File photo of BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    Khasru flies to London ahead of Yunus-Tarique meeting
  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus speaks at the Chatham House in London on 11 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    No desire to be part of next elected govt: CA Yunus
  • Illustration: Khandaker Abidur Rahman/TBS
    Three hospitals ‘held hostage’ as discharged July uprising injured keep occupying beds

Related News

  • Meat, eggs and milk to be sold at affordable prices at 25 spots in Dhaka
  • Whole milk and milk fat have no major impact on lipid metabolism: study
  • CVASU introduces milk analyser; will detect adulteration, presence of protein, infection
  • Reliance on milk import must be reduced: Livestock adviser
  • Milk Vita project axed after 6 years and spending Tk80cr

Features

Among pet birds in the country, lovebirds are the most common, and they are also the most numerous in the haat. Photo: Junayet Rashel

Where feathers meet fortune: How a small pigeon stall became Dhaka’s premiere bird market

23h | Panorama
Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

1d | Features
File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

3d | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

5d | Bangladesh

More Videos from TBS

Curfew imposed for second night in Los Angeles

Curfew imposed for second night in Los Angeles

13m | TBS World
When will coronavirus testing start in hospitals?

When will coronavirus testing start in hospitals?

1h | TBS Today
Saifuzzaman Chowdhury's property seized in UK

Saifuzzaman Chowdhury's property seized in UK

1h | TBS Today
A tragic accident has occurred in Ahmedabad, India, involving an Air India Boeing 787

A tragic accident has occurred in Ahmedabad, India, involving an Air India Boeing 787

2h | TBS World
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net