Television ads abound for full fat powdered milk. Television ads do not abound for fresh milk in the dairy section.
You can buy milk in the dairy section, but only very small containers – that is, maybe as large as 1 litre. For you Americans in the crowd, that’s about 4 cups of milk – I think that’s two pints. The rest of the world understood what I was talking about, of course. 🙂
You can also get them in little pouches – sort of like plastic bags, but with that UHF protective coating stuff. Those are available in 250 mL or 1 cup sizes. You can also get them in the tetra paks – again, by the 1 litre.
But most commonly, milk is sold powdered. And there are many brands of powdered milk – Anchor and Nestle being the two that spring to mind immediately. Anchor has some pretty interesting advertising with catchy tunes.
And you can get the powdered milk in many sizes up to a huge tin that’s about twelve inches high and six inches in diameter.
Powdered milk is a huge business here. Are you getting that?
When I asked Fahim about this, he said – and yes, of course he’ll deny it all later and say I got it all confused and that isn’t what he said at all – but I’m going with what I understood, and if I misunderstood him, then perhaps he needs to learn how to communicate better in English? – that it was because years ago, milk was shipped and sold powdered. Easier to ship (weighs less, takes up less space, and I’m guessing that refrigerated trucks aren’t too common here) and distribute. It’s just kept on since then.
I can see how that makes sense. In a country as hot as this one, that’s as poor as this one, where not everybody has ovens, and I have to wonder if everyone even has fridges – and I’m seriously doubting that. Oh, hang on, with only 63% of the country having available electricity? Of course they don’t.
So where refrigeration is not available everywhere, it doesn’t make sense to try to sell them milk that has to be refrigerated. Powdered milk makes sense.
Of course, now, in the areas where refrigeration is available, everyone grew up on powdered milk, everyone’s used to making milk as needed, so this is what they do. It’s a habit now.
Okay, I get it.
Back in Canada, I always bought my milk powdered, not fresh – but that was because I didn’t drink it, I only used it in cooking and baking. I didn’t see the point in buying fresh milk when it would go bad before I’d used even half of it. Powdered made much more sense for my particular lifestyle. But I also know that most people don’t do things the same way I do.
