New Delhi: India’s biggest dairy group Amul has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging it to delay a planned ban on tiny plastic straws. Amul said that banning plastic straws would have a negative impact on farmers and their consumption of milk. For the record, Amul sells billions of small dairy cartons with plastic straws attached every year.
In its letter, signed by Managing Director R.S. Sodhi, the $8 billion Amul group said the straws help promote milk consumption, and called for the ban – part of Modi’s drive to stamp out polluting, single-use plastic – to be postponed for a year.
A delay would “provide huge relief and benefit” to 100 million dairy farmers who “safeguard our food security in terms of milk and milk products”, Sodhi wrote.
For the unversed, Amul made its appeal in a letter reviewed by Reuters, dated May 28, that was sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s office ahead of a July 1 ban on straws packaged with small packs of juices and dairy products, a market estimated by an industry body to be worth $790 million.
The decision has spooked Amul and global drinks majors including PepsiCo Inc and Coca-Cola, especially after the government declined to change its stance and asked companies to switch to alternative straws.
Priced between 5 rupees and 30 rupees (7-40 U.S. cents), small beverage packs containing juice and milk products are hugely popular in India and part of a much bigger market for such beverages.
