Kerala to produce milk powder in own manufacturing unit from this year

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala's own manufacturing unit will start milk powder production from this year. Due to the lockdown and triple lockdown, farmers could not sell milk or the dairy groups couldn't take it to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to turn it into powder. Following this, it was decided to complete the construction of the milk powder plant in Malappuram immediately, minister Chinchu Rani told Kerala Kaumudi.

The new plant worth Rs 55 crore is being constructed at Moorkkanadu in Malappuram. For this, a tender was invited for the import of state-of-the-art machinery from abroad. During the high production season, up to 1.50 lakh liters of additional milk is produced in Kerala. According to Milma, the return of expatriates has led to an increase in milk production in Kerala.

Malabar produces more milk

Milma stores most of its milk in Malabar. While the average daily milk storage is 7,000,46 litres, the daily sales in Malabar is only 5,24,467 litres. The surplus 1,75,579 litres of milk will be sent to Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram areas where milk production is low.

Milk production in 3 regions - per litre of sale

Thiruvananthapuram-4,07,093 - 5,03,181

Ernakulam-3, 36, 330 - 3,56,887

Malabar - 7,00,046 - 5,24,467

Rs 10 loss per litre

Milma suffers loss of Rs. 10 per litre when it pay farmers Rs 39 and turn it into milk powder. Following the lockdown, up to 2.5 lakh liters of milk per day is being transported to other states to be turned into milk powder.

Punnapra flashback

Milma had a large milk powder plant in Punnapra before. The operation of the plant was disrupted for years due to non-availability of of milk (50,000 liters required per day) to continue operations. The old machines here became obsolete in the age of changed technology and were sold hanging at iron prices.