Sabar Dairy protest: Why Gujarat farmers are dumping milk on the streets

In Wanta Rampur village of Bayad taluka, protesting farmers, for over days, discarded thousands of litres of milk on the roads, refusing to supply it to Sabar Dairy. In Isrol and Umedpur villages of Modasa taluka, the women staged a symbolic cremation procession, burning an effigy to represent the Sabar Dairy administration.

On the warpath

The dairy farmers are on the warpath with the Sabarkantha District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union, commonly known as Sabar Dairy, located at Boriya Khurad village in Sabarkantha district. Their agitation stems from the management's refusal to meet their demand for a 25 per cent hike in milk procurement rates.

Arvindbhai Patel, a dairy farmer and cattle rearer associated with Sabar Dairy for over 15 years, told The Federal: “For more than a year we have been requesting the authorities at Sabar to revise our milk procurement rates. All our requests have fallen on deaf ears, leaving us with no choice but to come out on the roads to protest.”

“The price offered by Sabar Dairy currently is Rs 850-810 per kilo fat for buffalo milk and Rs 370-277 per kilo fat for cow milk, depending on the milk quality. While the price of buffalo milk is manageable since buffaloes require low maintenance, the price of cow milk is too low given the cost incurred to rear cows and the maintenance required for producing good quality milk," he added.

Also read: Gujarat: FIR against 1,000 over clash with police outside Sabar Dairy, 47 held

Latest milk prices

Per Sabar Dairy's latest charts, buffalo milk with 5 per cent and more of fat, and SNF (solid non-fat) of 9 per cent, is Rs 850. For khatu (low quality with less protein content) milk with the same fat percentage, it is Rs 810.

(SNF refers to all the milk components after milk fat and water are separated. It comprises proteins, lactose and minerals, and is an important indicator of milk quality. It determines the taste and texture and thereby the milk value).

Cow milk with 3 per cent fat and SNF 8.5 per cent and above is Rs 370.50. For low-quality milk with the same fat percentage, it is Rs 277.88. For cow milk with fat percentage of 2.6 to 2.9 per cent and SNF of 8 to 8.4 per cent, the price is Rs 338.23. For good quality milk with the same fat percentage, it is 253.68.

The current milk procurement prices of Sabar Dairy have been in effect from February 2025, when the milk cooperative hiked the prices in each category by Rs 10. The hike came five years after the price cut in all categories in 2020.

Prices slashed since 2018

Balubhai Chaudhary, a dairy farmer from Idar taluka, has been protesting against Sabar Dairy since July 14.

“The price was reduced first in June 2018 citing the low sale of milk and milk products across all cooperatives in Gujarat," Chaudhary told The Federal. "At that time, Sabar Dairy, along with Sumul, Dudhsagar and Amul Dairies, had slashed the prices of milk procurement by an average of Rs 20 per kilo fat.”

In September 2018, the Sabar Diary management once again decided to deduct prices by an average of Rs 40 per kilo fat, he pointed out.

“That time, too we were told milk production was higher than the sale of milk and milk products. Then, for two years, there were no sales during the pandemic while farmers continued to bear the cost of maintaining the cattle. In July 2020, the prices were cut once again by Rs 10 to Rs 20 per kilo fat,” he said. So, the increase of Rs 10 in 2024 is "unfair" and doesn’t even help in covering their cost of cattle maintenance and rearing, he added.

Also read: Sabar Dairy protest by cattle rearers turns violent; 3 cops injured, 40 detained

“Maintaining cattle is a 24x7 job and usually a dairy farmer’s entire family is involved in it from cutting hay, taking the cattle out for grazing, cleaning and feeding, milking, its treatment and administering medicine. There is also the additional work and care after the birth of a calf,” Chaudhary further said.

Sabar Dairy's response

Subhashchandra Patel, the MD of Sabar Dairy, defended the procurement pricing.

“The prices were reduced as the consumption fell drastically, particularly because hotels, sweet shops, ice-cream and dairy shops etc., stopped functioning during the lockdown," Patel told The Federal.

"We had to cut costs in 2020 to manage the sudden slump in the consumption of milk and milk products. Since the lockdown lifted, sales have not returned to pre-pandemic levels, as many consumers are no longer able to afford milk and dairy products as they used to before the pandemic. However, we increased the price in 2024, keeping in mind the needs of the dairy farmers,” he added.

Further, he said, “The management will hold a meeting and discuss the current demand of the farmers and come to a decision soon. The payment for procured milk is done bi-weekly. This week, we have not been able to procure milk owing to the protest. If this continues, the impact will be felt in urban centres.”

Jump in turnover

Per milk cooperative data, Sabar Dairy posted a 2023-24 turnover of Rs 8,938.96 crore, compared to Rs 6,805 crore in 2022-2023.

The huge jump in turnover has made it the third biggest milk cooperative in Gujarat, after Amul in Anand and Banas Dairy in Banaskantha, north Gujarat.

Jashubhai Patel, former Congress MLA from Bayad and a director on Sabar Dairy board, told The Federal, “Sabar Dairy has received multiple incentives and begun new projects between 2022 and 2025, making a huge jump in its annual turnover. Yet, it refuses to pay the farmers the price they deserve.”

Jashubhai Patel was arrested on July 15 for leading the protest at Himmatnagar.

Inaugurated by Modi

Further, he pointed out, in 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had inaugurated three major projects of Sabar Dairy, worth more than Rs 1,000 crore, including a powder plant with a capacity of around 120 metric tonnes per day, aseptic milk packaging plant with a capacity of 3 lakh litres per day and a cheese and whey drying plant project with an outlay of Rs 600 crore.

In November 2024, Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated a new cattle feed plant of Sabar Dairy, he added.

According to Jashubhai Patel, the cooperative is now doing well, and the farmers who were responsible for it should "get their due”.