Farmers pour milk onto streets protesting ‘low tariff’ on imports
Dairy farmers yesterday threw milk on the street as a mark of protest to the low hike in tariff on imported milk in the proposed budget for the incoming fiscal year.
The import tariff on milk has been raised to 10 percent from 5 percent at present.
The proposed duty increase will not be enough to protect the domestic producers from the competition of imported milk, said a press release of the Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association (BDFA).
“We demand anti-dumping duty and an increase in the overall import tariff to 50 percent,” said BDFA President Md Imran Hossain at a press conference at the National Press Club.
The association later formed a chain and poured milk on the street.
Dairy farming expanded fast in the last seven years, due to which milk production soared to 94 lakh tonnes in fiscal 2017-18, the BFDA said. In fiscal 2010-11, local production was 29 lakh tonnes, said the association citing estimates of the Department of Livestock Services.
The country’s requirement for milk is 1.50 crore tonnes.
Under the circumstance, the government is expected to provide incentives to the dairy industry, which involves 12 lakh producers and the growth of which created tens of thousands of jobs, the BDFA added.
The association demanded of development of area-wise milk preservation facilities, withdrawal of import duty on dairy machineries and cattle feed as well as fixing electricity tariff at rates applied for agriculture.
