With mercury rising, demand for milk union’s products soars

Shankar Bennur / The Hindu

Soaring temperature has upped the demand for beverages marketed by Mysuru Milk Union, a unit of Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited (KMF).

Also, with the poll heat picking up, with candidates hitting the campaign trail with along their supporters, the demand for health drinks from the brand of KMF’s ‘Nandini’ is expected to increase further.

Keeping the election season in mind, the milk unions have geared up to increase the production of beverages such as buttermilk and lassi to meet the demand. Each one of them is equipped to augment production based on the orders from bulk suppliers and retailers.

As these drinks are priced within ₹10 and easy to carry, the producers were foreseeing a rise in demand as the election campaign picks up.

Daily production

Mysuru Milk Union produces 10,000 sachets of buttermilk and 5,000 sachets of lassi daily. Around five lakh sachets of buttermilk are being produced and sold across the State. “The demand for buttermilk has increased from 5,000 sachets to 10,000 sachets since the mercury levels went up,” sources in milk union told The Hindu.

The ingredients used in the preparation of buttermilk and lassi had been kept ready for increasing the production in case the demand goes up suddenly. The Mysuru union has a surplus of around 10,000 litres of curds which can be used to scale up the production of buttermilk and lassi. Other unions too have their own arrangements for meeting the demand.

The production of buttermilk had once crossed 17,000 sachets and the drink had many takers during election season last year. “With the current summer appearing to be harsher than last year’s, the demand for such beverages will go up,” sources said.

Products such as masala buttermilk and lassi have a shelf life of 48 hours.

Having an established network in rural parts of the State, it will come in handy for producers to cater to the demand even in the remote corners of the areas. Moreover, the unions has established milk booths to market their produce.