No Aarey Milk for Mumbaikars as supply runs dry

The dairys market share has gone from 100 monopoly to just 1 in Mumbai File PicThis morning dont wait for your daily supply of Aarey Milk Doodh naslyane somvari booth var doodh yenar nahin This matteroffact SMS was all that Aarey Milk distributors got on Sunday to inform them that there would be no supply of milk on Monday But they know all too well that this is the beginning of the end Hundreds of Mumbaikars will be deprived of their morning cup of tea or milk on Monday as the Aarey Milk supply has dried to a trickle touching an alltime low of 13000 litresCompare this to 60000 litres from just a few months ago Sources at the Worli dairy confirmed From January to April the supply had come down from 60000 litres to 35000 litres On Sunday the supply came to an alltime low of 13000 litresThis miniscule amount will be only be supplied to hospitals childrens homes and prisons said a senior dairy official However none of the milk will make its way to the Aarey booths across MumbaiAlso read Are politicians milking Aarey dry to sell Rs 4000 crore landThe official told this reporter that shortage is the result of the same old problem of lower government rates Farmers are unwilling to sell their milk to Aarey for just Rs 24 per litre when they can get Rs 28Rs 29 per litre from private players Milk supply also gets affected in the summer season normally But if the government rates dont improve there is no helping Aarey dairy even after the summer ends the official warnedThe Worli dairy a prime seaside property is ripe for picking if Aarey Milk were to die File PicHospital staff worriedWhats worrying is that the shortage seems to be indefinite since neither dairy staffers nor distributors are sure whether the supply will pick up after this And hospital officials fear that their supply will be hit nextNot only do the hospitals get a subsidised supply of Aarey Milk but doctors also recommend it for patients and children because of its superior nutritional content At Nair Hospital a kitchen staffer said that so far their milk supply has not been affected and they are getting their daily requirement of 640660 litres We are so used to Aareys quality it is the best We cant even think of using any other brand The priority will be to give the milk to newborns and expecting mothers to paediatric patients and then to the others he saidAt Rajawadi hospital the daily requirement is 200 litres We only give eggs and milk to patients as they are firstclass protein Each patient is given 400 ml of milk a day If adequate supply is not received from the dairy the patients will be deprived of a healthy protein diet said a senior stafferPrasad Narvekar Milk Transporter and DistributorDistributors sufferMeanwhile ancillary businesses that depend on Aarey Milk are also suffering losses Take Prasad Narvekar a milk transporter and distributor who covers Bhandup and Mulund W for Aarey Milk While his costs have remained the same his profits have dried up just like the milk supply I started off supplying around 300 crates of milk with each crate containing 10 litres of milk This went down to 133 crates and now I will only get 610 crates Because I supply to a few hospitals like MT Agarwal Hospital and the Bhandup and Mulund maternity homes I will still have to send my vehicle just to get 6 to 10 crates I will incur losses as I will still have to bear the cost of fuel and staff he saidWe recently had a meeting with senior dairy development officials but they bluntly said that if it was not viable for us to transport the milk then we should not continue with this business he addedmidday had reported in 2014 that politicians had done little to help revive Aarey Milk giving credence to fears of a conspiracy to milk it dry and instead make a killing off the prime land held by the dairy The Worli dairy for instance is spread across 14 acres of prime seafacing land with a market value of over Rs 3000 croreDairy official saysDD Kulkarni general manager of the Worli dairy confirmed the shortage but tried to play it down saying There is no shortage of milk in the city as the public will get sufficient supply from other brands We only cater to 1 percent of demand anyway From 100 monopoly Aarey Milk has come down to just 1 of the cityAsked how long the problem would continue he said Short supply of the Aarey brand for a day or two wont affect our existing loyal customersOn the purchase price he said In most states the government is out of the picture and private cooperatives run the dairy However here even today the government is purchasing milk from farmers If the farmers get a good price from private cooperatives then it is good for themAsked why efforts were not being made to revive the dairy he said only These are government decisions and we cannot comment