Central Union of Animal Farmers (CUAF) of Iran declines any shortage in milk production, claiming an annual growth of 8 percent in industrial milk production.
Over the past few weeks, supply of milk to supermarkets has become irregular and this led to suspicions of a shortage of milk and whether it had to do with the return of sanctions.
Since the government considers the import of powdered milk eligible for lower exchange rate of 42,000 rials for each dollar, the CUAF believes that the dairy producers claim the shortage in milk production, in order to be able to import powdered milk at a lower exchange rate.
In this regard, Akhbar Sanaat Daily quotes the Head of the CUAF, Alireza Azizolahi, saying: “The amount of milk produced in the country not only satisfies the domestic demand, but there is a surplus and is currently exported to neighboring countries. Dairy products exported are worth one billion US dollars. Decrease in milk production can only happen if we had a decrease in the number of livestock which has not happened. There are 1.3 million cows in the country and we had no report regarding unusual slaughtering.”
Mr Azizolahi also notes that although the price in red meat has considerably increased in local markets, this does not encourage animal farmers to kill more animals because producing milk provides them with a steady source of income.
In Iran 80% of the milk needed to produce dairy products is supplied by industrial farms and 20% is supplied by traditional farmers. While the industrial milk produced grows nearly 8% per year, there is almost no growth among pastors’ productions.
Since the Iranian year of 1393 until 1396 the price of milk was fixed despite the inflation rate. Recently the government has modified prices and now the base price of one kilogram of medium fat milk supplied to dairy producers is 21,000 rials.
