Influence of raw milk quality attributes on its pricing in Pakistan

In developing countries, milk quality characteristics are not maintained by the milk producers and the middlemen. This study initially estimates the influence of various milk quality attributes on its price and then estimate the effect of socio-demographic characteristics on the marginal price of the milk components. Data collected from milk consumers through personal interview method, and milk sample took from the same consumers are used to estimate a two-stage hedonic model. In the first stage, prices were estimated for milk components and in the second stage, implicit price of each component was used as the dependent variable. The first stage results show that fat, solids-not-fat, total plate counts, color, and pleasant aroma have a significant impact on the milk price. The second stage results indicate that fat and solids-not-fat values are a function of the sociodemographic characteristics of consumers. To maintain milk quality attributes, we recommend the establishment of chilling centers for maintenance of quality, checkpoints and mobile laboratories for testing quality, provision of basic testing equipment at subsidized rates, hygiene awareness program for stakeholders in value chain, health risk awareness for consumers consuming raw milk and its products, and introduction and popularization of enzyme-based lactoperoxidase preservation technology.