In a detailed discussion with Indian Cooperative Thursday morning, co-op dairy giant Amul’s Managing Director R S Sodhi explained his preparations to ensure that milk and dairy products are not in short supply for the people across India in the wake of national lockdown.
Generally appreciative of the govt support at every level of procurement, processing and distribution of milk, Sodhi however felt that the food packaging industry also needs to work in tandem with the rest of the players in the food-delivery system.
“GCMMF continues to collect several lakh liters of milk every day from 36 lakh farmers from 18 thousand five hundred villages and the process remains absolutely unaffected by the lock down,” Sodhi credited a govt notification for this which puts milk procurement, processing and distribution into the essential services category.
I can assure you that there is going to be no problem in these 21 days of troubled times, said Sodhi adding that milk supplies continue undiminished in Ahmadabad, Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and all other places. In fact, we have increased the collection of milk by more than 10 per cent, he added.
Though we do get reports of logistic issues from 1-2 places but they are sorted out sooner than later, said the MD 
who continues to monitor the situation in the 24×7 time frame. “While our loaded milk vans are not stopped at any of the borders, they do face trouble on return, when these are empty”, Sodhi listed one of the issues being faced by the co-op titan.
Sodhi also touched upon the issue of contamination of milk in these times of scare and said that at each of the collection centres of Amul, social distancing is maintained. “There are big bill-boards at each of these centres giving info on how to protect oneself from the Corona Virus”, explained Sodhi.
Once the milk is fed into a processing plant it goes through the automatic processing and packaging and there is no human interference, stated Sodhi dispelling doubts from the minds of consumers.
Sodhi however admitted that at the retail level there may be doubt of infection getting onto the plastic pouches and what one needs to do is to wash the same with hot water after getting it from a retail shop.
Talking about the collection centres and about other marketing offices of GCMMF, Sodhi said that a minimal staff needed to carry forward the daily exercise is being called these days. “They maintain complete hygiene and social distancing”, he added promising that Amul will never stop its services.
“I wish to express through your portal that we would continue our services and would ensure that fresh milk reaches to your kitchen every morning, come what may”, signed off Sodhi.
