KARACHI – It seems unbelievable but it is a fact that the milkmen are extorting about Rs 150 billion a year from the consumers in the urban areas by just mixing water in the milk. A brief probe carried out by Pakistan Today showed that the raw milk available at shops and being supplied to homes in major cities carries a minimum of 25 percent of the water.
In some cases, the water-milk ratio goes up to around 40-50 percent. The milkmen justify the adulteration citing high production cost and ‘lower’ rates of milk. Keeping in view the annual sale of about 10 billion litres of raw milk in the urban areas of the country, it is believed that the milk sellers (suppliers and retailers) pocket about Rs 150 billion extra by just mixing 25 percent water into the milk.
“Twenty to 30 percent adulteration of water into milk is very common and without doing it we cannot sustain our business of selling milk,” a shopkeeper told Pakistan Today, requesting anonymity. In winter we mix water and in summer season we use ice to double the quantity of the milk, he said. Total annual production of loose milk in the country is around 34 billion litres out of which 70 percent is consumed in the rural areas and 30 percent (about 10 billion litres) is supplied in urban areas.
In rural areas the quality of the milk is better than in the urban areas and it seems difficult to guess as to how much water is mixed. Total value of the loose milk sold in the urban areas amounts to Rs 550 billion (in case the average price per liter is calculated at Rs 55, although it varies from city-to-city.
For example in Karachi, loose milk is being sold at Rs 60 per litre that too after the intervention of the government, otherwise, the milkmen have announced new price of the milk at Rs70 per litre. “The policy makers are concerned only about the price of the milk and are totally indifferent to its quality, adulteration, etc.,” Safia Tariq Khan, a house-wife living in Karachi Defence told Pakistan Today.
She lamented the government, politicians, and NGOs never mind the poor quality of milk available to the citizens. Interesting to note is that in Pakistan the share of packaged milk is only four percent of the total annual production. A majority of the people believe that the packaged milk is better in quality than raw milk, but prefer raw milk for lower rates.
Pakistan is currently the 4th largest producer of milk in the world. In official documents the annual production of milk is expected to increase to 40 billion litres by the year 2015, from current output of 34 billion litres.
While, we are hearing about a ‘White Revolution’ meaning abundance of milk, we all seem oblivious to the fact that what we get is adulterated milk.
