The economic crisis brought on by the new coronavirus is taking serous toll on Bangladesh farms, forcing some dairies to dump milk as demand has dried up.

Almost 95 percent of milk is remaining unsold costing over Tk 1700 crore loss in a month of milk produced by dairy farmers across Bangladesh.

Due to bad-patch Bangladesh dairy farmers had to incur a loss of Tk 57 crore daily across the country.

While milk is beginning to be dumped, sweet makers, crippled by the closure of restaurants and farmers markets, are also facing the harsh reality of business during the time of Covid-19.

“We have been experiencing a serious situation due to countrywide holidays declared to prevent the spread of coronavirus.” President of the Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association (BDFA) Emran Hossain told Business Mirror.

“Our total production was 9.9 million metric tons of milk annually which meets about 70 percent of the country’s demand. But now, everyday milk worth Tk 57 crore remains unsold,” Hossain said, adding that the monthly loss will be Tk 1,710 crore.

BDFA leaders informed that only 5 percent of the milk is purchased by the milk processing companies while 84 percent are sold to sweetmeat producers and household consumers.

But due to the closure of shops and abnormal public life life, the milk producers are facing a hard time as their milk remains unused, they said seeking help of the government and milk processing companies.

The BDFA leaders informed that over 12 million people are dependent on the milk producing industry.

Milk cooperative society in Madarganj of Jamalpur, Reshambari Cooperative Society of Milk Vita in Baghabarighat, told about their hardship due to supply chain collapse eats up their investment.

Dairy farmers in Panchagarh, Mohanpur, Bogra, Ishwardi, Naogaon, Bhangura, Natore, and Rangpur are suffering more, as Milk Vita’s Baghabari chilling plant for the region can daily turn only one lakh litre of milk into powder.

A Milk Vita official told Business Mirror raw milk starts going sour six hours after the collection and the farmers cannot afford to stop milking their cows as it would otherwise cause the animals a disease called Mastitis.

Md Mosleh Uddin, general manager of Brac Dairy, a leading entrepreneur in the country’s dairy sector,  told Business Mirror that they collect 1.2 lakh litres of milk from 46,000 farmers every day at 101 chilling plants across the country.