Milk Price Still Cheaper Than Cigarettes

The comemmoration of National Milk Day at the Faculty of Husbandry IPB, Wednesday (6/6) in the Auditorium of James Humuntal Hutasoit, Dramaga campus of IPB was attended by hundreds of women from the villages around the campus.

For example, Nurhayati Samsiah (40), a mother of four children from the village of Sinarsari, admits that although she does not like milk, but she always tries to provide milk for her four children. But, she said, so far she could only give sweetened condensed milk; whereas in the seminar she attended, the good milk to consume is fresh milk.

"At my place where is it to buy fresh milk; no one is selling it. A can of sweetened condensed milk is already so expensive, nearly nine thousand dollars, let alone fresh milk, it is definitely expensive," said Nurhayati agreed with by her village fellow, Nuraya (44).

Previously, Director of Agricultural Food Processing, Ministry of Agriculture, Ir Nazaruddin, MM., said that our society still think of milk as a luxury thing, so it is considered expensive. In fact, he explained, the price of one liter of fresh milk is still below the price of a pack of cigarettes usually consumed by men.

As for the supply of fresh milk, Nazaruddin admits, our country still faces several obstacles, in terms of both quality and quantity. "Until now, the production of domestic fresh milk has not been able to meet national needs. Our farmers can only supply 26 percent of national demand. The remainder, or 74 percent is imported. Hopefully with increasing awareness of the public to consume fresh milk, the development of agro-processing industries of dairy products are increasing as well. Thus, in the future we can achieve self-sufficiency in milk," said Nazaruddin. (Mtd)