Government dairy cooperative sales have increased: Stalin

Chief minister M K Stalin said on Sunday that his government has revived Aavin, the state government cooperative which produces milk and dairy products, by boosting production and sales.

The statement comes at a time when the opposition in Tamil Nadu is criticising the DMK government for increasing prices of Aavin products.

“In the AIADMK regime, during Deepavali they had only ₹53 crore in sales whereas we have been able to increase it to ₹85 crore . We are expecting about ₹110 crore worth sales during this year’s Diwali,” Stalin said during the family wedding of S M Nasar, minister for milk and dairy development.

Sales of ghee increased during Diwali and Aavin has now introduced sweets and 12 varieties of cake, the chief minister said. “All this is not just because I’m the chief minister but also because Nasar is the minister,” he said. “All this is an achievement. While inspecting production, Nasar wears a cap – not the Muslim cap but a cap worn for hygiene while making sweets. That’s how he is dedicated to his work.”

The opposition BJP, AIADMK and AMMK have criticised the government for hiking Aavin prices. On Saturday, AIADMK’s interim general secretary and leader of the opposition Edappadi Palaniswami, in a series of tweets, wondered whether there is an attempt to deny people basic nutrition they were getting by consuming dairy products from Aavin. He pointed out that the price of ghee going up from ₹515 to ₹630 and that of of 1kg of butter going up by ₹20. Expelled AIADMK leader O Panneerselvam said that the government betrayed people by hiking prices.

“This incompetent DMK government has cheated the people who voted for them by increasing the price of milk. It has once again hiked price of its products, saying that this is not enough,” BJP’s Tamil Nadu president K Annamalai tweeted on Friday. “In the last 9 months, the price of milk products has been increased three times. Earlier, Aavin’s orange milk packets price was hiked by ₹12 resulting in a decline in its sales. Is the incompetent DMK government planning to hold a closing ceremony for Aavin by acting in favour of private milk companies and dairy products proprietors?”

Previously, officials of Aavin attributed the hike in ghee prices to the increase by private brands. Last week, Stalin inaugurated an Aavin ice cream manufacturing plant in Salem to increase its production capacity.