R S Sodhi, the MD of dairy cooperative giant GCMMF has said that it is planning to invest about Rs 2,500 crore to raise its milk processing capacity to more than 38 million litres per day in the next four years.
The co-op major says that it wishes to raise milk processing capacity by another 10 million litres per day. The cooperative is looking to raise the capacity by 2020, which will require an investment of about Rs 2,500 crore, Mr Sodhi added.
Amul will set up one plant each for milk processing in Kolkata and Mumbai and two more plants in Gujarat. Besides this, it plans to raise the capacity in a few existing plants. The cooperative has about 60 various processing plants, of which 40 are in Gujarat only.
Recently GCMMF MD R S Sodhi had wanted French dairy colossus Lactalis which is venturing into India in a big way to buy milk from local farmers. He had welcomed Lactalis and felt it would spur competition and would usher in an era of latest technologies.
We welcome larger and responsible organized players in Indian dairy field as it will improve prices being paid to milk producers. But our main concern is that foreign dairy majors should buy directly from Indian farmers and should not depend on import.
In the fiscal 2015-16, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) has done a business turnover of Rs 23,000 crore. The milk cooperative would net itself a sales turnover of Rs. 30,000 crore by 2017-18, claimed Sodhi.
Amul’s 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.
