The New Year seems to have brought a lot of cheer for the dairy industry. With exports going down, the co-op dairies and private players have managed to sell off their excess Skimmed Milk Product (SMP) stock. This doing away of the excess supply has created a demand, leading to firming up of prices by at least Rs.20/kg over the last 15 days.

Exports have also started picking up due to the various incentives offered by the Govt, prices are on the rise. The international SMP prices have shown a firm trend at $2,042 a tonne at Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auctions for December 18, which was closer to the 12-month peak levels of $2,051.

Hatsun which had an inventory build-up of about 200,000 tonnes last year is said to have got rid of all this excess supply and is now looki g ahead at much better prices.

This is the reason why Hatsun, which does a major supply of SMPs is the top gainer on the BSE. The stock price rose 8% to Rs.676.70, with volumes showing a spurt of 15 times.