Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) is undertaking major expansion to increase milk processing capacity to 320 lakh litre per day from the current 230 lakh litre per day, its Managing Director R S Sodhi said.
With comfortable supply-demand situation, he ruled out any rise in retail milk prices for at least next 3-4 months.
“We expect our turnover to reach about Rs 22,000 crore in the current fiscal from Rs 18,143 crore last year. The higher turnover is because of volume growth as there has been not much increase in prices,” Sodhi said.
In terms of percentage, he said the turnover growth would be lower than the 32 percent achieved last year.
“We are witnessing growth in all segments including milk and ice-cream,” Sodhi said.
Asked about expansion, he said the company was setting up facilities at different parts of the country to increase processing capacity to 320 lakh litres per day in the next three years.
The new plants are being set up in Gujarat, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Asked about price situation, Sodhi said retail prices “will not increase for at least next 3-4 months”.
Pointing out that milk procurement prices being paid to farmers have declined in North India and
Maharashtra, he said there was a need to stabilize the prices to ensure that farmers get remunerative price for their produce and they do not leave this business.
He demanded that the government should provide incentives for export of skimmed milk powder (SMP) that has become unviable due to fall in global prices and creation of buffer stock of SMP.
“To boost demand for SMP, the Central government and state governments can use milk powder for nutritional programme in schools across the country,” Sodhi said.
India is the world’s largest milk producer with an output of 137 million tonnes.
–PTI