Fresh milk to customers, more money to farmers

MALAPPURAM: A group of dairy farmers in the Farmers’ Club, formed with the help of Nabard in Mannaramala near Perinthalmanna, is making example by collecting milk from farmers at better prices and offering nature-fresh farm milk to customers.Named Menmma, the initiative offers nature-fresh milk, filled in 600 ml glass bottles under strict quality control measures. “It is distributed to the customers within 2 hours of milking without adding any chemicals for preservation,” says Jaffer Kakkoth, the coordinator of the initiative.  Menmma costs Rs 30 per litre while Milma distributes a litre for `24. But, while Milma gives Rs 17 per litre of milk to the farmer on an average, Menmma is able to give Rs 24 per,” he said. Despite the rate difference, Menma already have more than 300 customers and their number is growing so that Menmma cannot meet the demand. Majority of the customers are doctors, who prefer Menmma as it is neither treated chemically nor packed in plastic covers.Moreover, the seal code on every bottle indicates the source of the milk, allowing the customer to select the milk from a particular cow or farmer. To keep the quality high, Menmma monitors the health of the cows of the 24 farmers associated with it, with the help of a veterinary doctor.  “Apart from regular quality maintenance measures, we check the quality of the milk randomly, said Musthafa K T, a farmer who works as the marketing manager of the Menmma.However, it is not a smoothly-run business. Lack of processing equipment such as freezer or creamer with which they can handle the excess milk is blocking the progress of the initiative.  “Sometimes there will be excess milk when our regular customers go on trip or when a farmer turns up with more milk. So we are struggling to get some money to expand the initiative in such a way that we can handle the excess milk and turn it into other milk products,” added Jafer.