The price of Milma milk will go up by ₹4 a litre from Monday (June 1).

The Kerala Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Milma) said the price hike has been necessitated by the spiralling production costs and the low returns hitting dairy farmers hard. The decision to increase the price was taken at a meeting of the federation held in May.

The price of Milma Double Toned Milk (Milma Smart) 500 ml sachet will go up to ₹ 27, that of Homogenised toned milk to ₹28 and Milma Pride (Homogenised) to ₹30.

Out of the ₹4, ₹3.35 (83.75%) will go to the dairy farmers and 25 paise (6.25%) to the dairy cooperative societies. With this revision, the procurement price to the farmers will go up from ₹40.04 to ₹43.39 a litre, according to Milma.

In addition to the jump in production costs, the “adverse geo-political headwinds and subsequent rise in fuel prices had resulted in sharp rise in transportation, distribution and packaging costs of milk and milk products,” Milma said in a statement.

Milma chairman K.S. Mani said these factors make “a compelling case for a modest increase” in milk prices to sustain Kerala’s cooperative dairy sector. The revised prices will be printed on the existing stock of milk covers displaying the old price till the present stocks are exhausted," Milma said.