Notching up yet another achievement, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) that owns Amul has done a business turnover of Rs 23,000 crore in the fiscal 2015-16. Translated into annual growth in business, it adds up to a whopping 11 percent compared to the just ended fiscal. GCMMF MD R.S.Sodhi claimed the milk cooperative would net itself a sales turnover of Rs. 30,000 crore by 2017-18.
Talking to Indian Cooperative RS Sodhi, the Managing Director of GCMMF said, “Our turnover has been growing over 20 percent since the last six years due to higher milk procurement, continuous expansion in terms of adding new markets, launching of new products and adding new milk processing capacities across India” he said.
Sodhi said ” Amul daily sells 120 lakh litres of milk across the country, of which 50 lakh is sold in Gujarat. This year our rate of growth is on a lower side because we have not increased the prices of any milk products since the last 20-22 months. Though we had increased the prices of milk slightly in May last year in Gujarat, the prices of milk in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata have not been increased since 2014. In fact we have reduced the prices of some of products like buttermilk and curd,” the GCMMF MD told the cooperative news portal.
“Amul plans to enchance its milk processing capacity from the current 281 lakh litres per day to 380 lakh litres in the next five years,” he said. The 17 member unions of GCMMF with farmer member strength of more than 36 lakh across 18600 villages of Gujarat are procuring on an average 180 lakh litres of milk per day.“Milk procurement of GCMMF has increased from 90 lakh litres per day in 2009-10 to 180 lakh litres per day. No state has seen such a growth,” Sodhi added.
“In New Zealand, farmers were getting around Rs 51.5 per litre of milk during 2013-14 which has reduced to Rs 21.7 per litre during 2015-16. On the other hand, farmers in Gujarat are getting 8-10 percent higher price of milk every year. The higher prices of milk in the state are also the reason of Gujarat registering a 15 percent annual growth in the number of cattle,” MD said.
The GCMMF recently inked an agreement with Madhur dairy operated by Gandhinagar District Co-operative Milk Producers Union (GDCMPU) under which Madhur will sell Amul brand of milk in Gandhinagar. So far, Madhur used to sell over a lakh litres of milk daily under its own brand.
Amul which is universally held as the pride of cooperative does its auditing on time. Another cooperative which figures in the list of those completing auditing well before the time is IFFCO, according to informed sources.