After registering a profit for the first time during the last fiscal year, Goa Dairy’s Cattle Feed Manufacturing Plant at Mharvasaddo-Usgao has been facing a loss of over Rs 65,000 per day.
Officials said that imports of key ingredients used in manufacturing cattle feed have been hit due to the ongoing war, and hence Indian suppliers who import these items have hiked rates.
An official at the Goa Dairy plant said that they procure raw materials such as De Oiled Rice Bran (DRB), Cotton Seed Extract and Rice Polish Fine (Rice Bran) from companies in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and other neighbouring states for producing feed pellets.
“We are facing a loss of around Rs 1 to Rs 1.5 per kilo of cattle feed, while the plant sells around 50 tonne of feed every day. The rates of key ingredients such as rice bran have been hiked by Rs 10 to Rs 12 by sellers,” the official said.
Most of the edible oils are imported from foreign countries, and supply has been affected due to the war. States like Rajasthan and Maharashtra use rice bran oil for cooking, and hence the shortage has led to an increase in demand and subsequent price hike, the official said.
As Goa Dairy is a cooperative union of around 137 village-level milk collection societies, it provides cattle feed to the farmers at subsidised rates in a bid to promote milk production.
Goa Dairy’s cattle feed plant supplies high protein cattle feed, high energy cattle feed, jmaka chuni (maize powder), animal pregnancy ration, calf ration and kadba kutti (chopped pieces of jowar or sorghum and green vegetables) to milk farmers in the state.
Former chairman of the Administrative Committee, Durgesh Shirodkar had announced that the loss generating cattle feed plant had registered a profit during the financial year 2021-22 for the first time.
The plant has said to have earned a profit of Rs 2.3 crore against previous year’s (2020-21) loss of Rs 4.5 crore.
Goa State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, popularly known as Goa Dairy, has earned a gross profit of Rs 3.7 crore, including the profit of the cattle feed plant. The dairy had a turnover of Rs 13.3 crore for the 2020-21 fiscal against previous year’s Rs 6.4 crore.
During the 2021-22 financial year, Goa Dairy earned an income of Rs 10.1 crore through sales of milk and milk products in the open retail market, and the cattle feed plant’s income from selling feed to farmers was Rs 2.3 crore. For 2020-21, the dairy’s income was pegged at Rs 9.3 crore.
