Despite Covid-19, Surat based Sumul Dairy has crossed the annual turnover of Rs 4138.77 crore in the 2020-21 financial year, which is Rs. 93.66 crore higher compared to last year i.e. 2019-20. Besides, the dairy, which is one of the milk unions of GCMMF is also trying to achieve a procuring target of milk from 15 lakh liter to 20 lakh liter in five years.
Talking to Indian Cooperative – Sumul Dairy Chairman Maansinh Patel said, “Though there has been no perceptible impact of Covid-19 on our overall business in the current year, our sale did register a decline from 12 lakh litres of milk to 8 lakh litres of milk per day.”
“This was for a limited period and due to the lockdowns imposed after the second wave of Covid-19. But now the situation has improved and we are back to normal business,” Maansinh added.
Congratulating the farmers and his staff-members, Sumul Chairman said “Though, the year was full of challenges as due to the pandemic many milk societies run by the union faced obstacles, the credit goes to cattle rearers, Sumul employees and officers whose collective efforts finally brought cheers to all”, he said on the phone.
Despite adverse conditions and restrictions on movement and transportation (Lockdowns during Pandemic), the Union has managed to procure 62.14 crore kg of milk efficiently and has been able to procure an additional 8.21 crore kg of milk compared to last year which is 15.20% more than previous year.
During the year, Sumul Dairy is able to give Rs 16.42 per kilo more fat in average price of buffalo milk and Rs. 31 per kilo additional fat in average price of cow milk compared to last year. Also, SUMUL has been able to give BCU fat difference of Rs 24.93 per kilo fat which is Rs 4.33 per kilo more fat compared to previous year, Patel asserted.
At the end of the financial year, SUMUL had paid a final price of Rs 86 per kilo fat to the dairy farmers associated with the union, the Chairman underlined. “We wish to urge dairy farmers to feed good quality animal feed to the cattle to keep them healthy and get more milk productivity at less cost and increase their income”, he exhorted.
Our cattle feed Factory at Bajipura, Surat has become the first organization to produce BIS (ISI Licensed) quality feed among all other unions in the state of Gujarat, Patel informed.
Readers would recall that Sumul is also diversifying in other fields such as selling vegetables through its outlets spread across Surat and Tapi districts of Gujarat.