Amul plans setting up processing unit in Northeast

Mumbai: Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which sells dairy products under the Amul brand, is mulling setting up a processing unit in the Northeast, a senior company executive said.

"We are setting up two processing units in UP -- one in Kanpur and one in Lucknow -- which will be operational in 5-6 months. "We are also planning to set to set up a processing unit near Kolkata. We are investing Rs 200 crore for each of these units," GCMMF's Managing Director R S Sodhi told PTI here. He said the company is also looking at Northeast for setting up a milk processing unit.

GCMMF has 60 milk processing units spread across the country. The company is expecting Rs 23,000 crore revenue this fiscal. "We are expecting Rs 23,000 crore in sales by the end of the financial year. The rise in revenue is only due to increase in volume," he added. When asked if the company is planning to increase prices of its products, Sodhi said there is no such plan for the next six months.

However, he said production cost is increasing due to rise in cost of procurement and production, including cattle feed and labour costs. GCMMF exports its value-added products to over 50 countries. "Our main focus is on the domestic market for expansion. Of the total revenues, we export only about Rs 250 crore," he said.

GCMMF, formed in 1946 with just two village dairy co-operative societies and 247 litres of milk, has helped the country become the largest milk producer in the world. Today, it procures about 14.85 million litres of milk every day from 18,536 village milk cooperative societies and 17 member unions covering 31 districts and 3.37 million milk producer members