Why real ghee cannot be cheap: the 30 litre maths

Every few weeks someone messages us a screenshot of ghee selling for ৳600 a kilogram and asks why ours costs twice that. It is a fair question with a boring arithmetic answer.

Start with the milk

Cow milk is roughly 4% fat. To get one kilogram of pure butterfat you need about 25 to 30 litres of milk, depending on the breed and the season. At a farmgate price of ৳60 to ৳70 per litre, the milk alone costs ৳1,500 to ৳2,100.

Add labour for the bilona churning, fuel for six hours of slow simmering, packaging, lab testing, courier and the shop margin, and you can see where a genuine kilogram lands.

So what is in the ৳600 tin?

Usually one of three things. Vanaspati or palm-based vegetable fat with butter flavouring. Ghee made from imported milk powder rather than fresh milk. Or genuine ghee heavily cut with either of those.

None of these are illegal to make. They become fraud only when the label says pure.

How to check what you bought

• The grain: slow-cooked ghee forms visible granules as it cools. Perfectly smooth ghee often means a fast industrial process.
• The smell test: real ghee smells of cooked milk. Vanilla or a caramel sweetness usually means added essence.
• The palm test: a small amount should melt on your palm within seconds from body heat alone. Vegetable fat resists.
• The iodine test: a few drops of iodine on cooled ghee turns blue if starch has been added as filler.

The uncomfortable conclusion

You cannot buy honest ghee below the cost of the milk in it. When a price looks impossible, the arithmetic has usually been solved somewhere you cannot see.