Milk and Dairy Products Consumption in Assam: An Economic Analysis

The present study aims to analyze consumers’ preferences and trends in consumption of milk and dairy products and their impact on determining dairy production and marketing opportunities in Assam. The survey was done on 1,500 households in nine project districts of the Assam Agricultural Competitiveness Project. The results reveal that the rural consumers are older and less educated, and on average, have larger household size than urban consumers. Almost all consumers are non-vegetarians and the majority of their household members are lactose tolerant. Urban and rural consumers have shown differential preferences for certain quality attributes of milk and dairy products and this finding does not support the hypotheses of the same preferences by these two types of consumers. In terms of taste, nutritive value, health risk and hygiene, boiled milk scored the highest preference rating among both urban and rural consumers, on average. On the other hand, powdered milk scored the highest preference rating in terms of shelf life and packaging. Urban consumers also gave the highest preference score to powdered milk for availability, while rural consumers did the same for raw milk. In terms of price, urban consumers gave the highest preference rating to raw milk, while rural consumers preferred powdered milk for this particular attribute.