The supply of milk was way short of the demand across the city on Thursday morning as people tried to stock up for Friday and Saturday, the two total lockdown days.

By evening, the government had called off the total lockdown on Saturday (September 12).

The government hasn’t kept milk on the list of essential commodities that enjoy relaxation during days of total lockdown and so the rush to stock up.

A shop owner at Gariahat who stocks multiple brands of milk said the demand was almost three times the normal. “Regular customers who usually buy four packets of milk in the morning asked for 12 packets. Some called up and placed their orders in advance,” he said.

Every morning, Calcutta and its adjoining areas require around 1.5 million litres of milk. Amul with close to 700,000 litres is the market leader followed by Red Cow with close to 200,000 litres. Mother Dairy and Metro Dairy supply about 170,000 litres each.

Officials of various dairies quoted distributors as saying retailers had possibly not realised the extent of the demand.

Besides, what contributed to the spike was Jitiya Puja, which is observed by people hailing from parts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.

People shop in Gariahat Market in Calcutta ahead of the statewide lockdown. Pradip Sanyal

Many distributors said they did not place full orders because retailers were unsure if they could store the unsold milk. Two days of lockdown would have posed a challenge in storing unsold packets of milk in the right temperature.

“Milk is a perishable item that reaches outlets from the plants and it needs to be stored at eight degrees centigrade or below,” Abhijit Maity of Amul said.

The company has 450 distributors catering to more than 17,000 outlets across the state.

Some retail chains like Spencers have a cold chain mechanism wherein they can preserve milk almost at the same temperature as that of the plants where it is produced. But even these outlets ran short of supply on Thursday evening.

“We only have Tetra Paks. Milk packets are sold out,” an executive of Spencers at Acropolis Mall said in the evening.

Large parts of Ballygunge, Gariahat, Kasba, Tollygunge, and Behala in the south and Maniktala, Phoolbagan, Kankurgachhi, Lake Town, and Kalinidi in the north ran out of milk by 11am on Thursday.

There is another problem as well.

“It is difficult to meet a sudden surge in demand. Every plant has a maximum capacity of production and that can’t be increased overnight,” Sushmita Mukherjee, the chief general manager of Mother Dairy, said.

The company has close to 200 outlets of its own and 150 kiosks.