Responding to the media comments on the so-called slow growth of Amul in the financial year 2014-15, the Managing Director RS Sodhi reminded the Indian Cooperative readers that Amul started from a high base as it had clocked 32% growth last fiscal.
In a SMS message sent to Indian Cooperative Mr Sodhi said “ Still our annual board meeting not over but our approx turnover for 14 -15 is 20730 cr which is a growth of 14.2 % over previous year.”
“This growth is commendable as last year we also got growth of 32 %, so high base, and growth of 53% in two years, in consumer products growth of 21 %, in bulk we declined by 77 % due to drastic decline in bulk dirt products prices in international market”, he added.
Earlier, media reports said Amul’s rate of growth this fiscal had been the slowest in the last 8 years. It blamed the falling global milk prices for this.
The total turnover of the Amul group, owned by close to 32 lakh farmers from 17 district cooperatives, including sale of liquid milk by member unions, other dairy products and cattle feed in their respective districts, is estimated at almost Rs 29,000 crore.
The cooperative dairy, which processes 154 lakh litres of milk procured from Gujarat and other states daily, is focusing on expanding its plant capacity by 14% to process 175 lakh litres of milk per day.
Mr.Sodhi said with the current expansion in setting green field projects and expanding existing units, Amul should achieve a turnover of Rs 25,000 crore in 2015-16.
”To expand its export market, which slumped by 53% to Rs 250 crore in 2014-15, Amul plans to focus on the SAARC and Middle East countries. “Pakistan, Afghanistan, Middle East are good markets to expand” said Sodhi.