Amul plans second White Revolution

After starting a White Revolution in the country and changing the way India consumes milk and its products, Amul is ready to start a second revolution. The cooperative milk giant is looking to double its milk production capacity by 2020.
B M Vyas, managing director of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), said it took 60 years to reach a production of 10 million litres a day. “We now plan to double this to 20 million litres by 2020,” said Vyas, who is spearheading the programme.

In short, what took Anand Milk Union Ltd, better known as Amul, six decades to achieve will now be replicated in just 10 years. With this increase, it will grow its revenues three-fold.

Years ago, the unique cooperative movement transformed India from an imports-dependent country to a self-sufficient one. Now, the demand for milk has increased with people’s purchasing power going up and Amul is hoping to meet this demand with its capacity expansion.

GCMMF, which markets all Amul products, expects its sales to shoot up to Rs 27,000 crore in 2020 from an estimated Rs 6,700 crore in 2008-09. “Amul milk and milk products are available across India and we will continue to expand wherever we see a good opportunity. Delhi and Mumbai are two of the biggest markets in the country and we will continue to focus on them,” said Vyas. 

While Amul’s mainstay, liquid milk, is sold in cities in west, north and east India, it still hasn’t entered the southern markets. Asked if Amul was looking to tap the southern market, Vyas said the company is not averse to it and would do so if an opportunity presents itself.

Amul’s strategy of processing buffalo milk in Gujarat has worked wonders over the last 60 years and the federation’s 13 dairy union memberships have risen to 2.7 million, spread over 13,000 villages. The livestock in the state has grown by 1% per annum to 5.6 million currently and the productivity level per animal has improved due to better feed and other initiatives taken by the dairy unions.

To achieve the 2020 target, Amul will increase the capacities of the existing 30 dairy plants and add some new ones, said Vyas. Every milk-producing village will be connected, more cold storage facilities will be put in place and the number of Amul parlours as well distributors will be increase manifold.

Himansh Dhomse & Niyati Rana contributed to this story