R S Sodhi, MD of GCMMF said that with the vaccination campaign picking up in the country, the dairy co-op giant is confident of returning to robust growth in the financial year 2021-22.
Sodhi was reacting to a PTI report in which he is quoted saying that the total turnover of GCMMF grew 2 per cent to Rs 39,200 crore. Amul had registered a massive growth in the last fiscal to Rs 38,550 crore.
Talking to Indian Cooperative Sodhi said lockdowns led to a reduction in the sales of many of Amul’s products such as ice-cream, skimmed milk powder, etc. There was also no demand from the hotel industry which was practically shut down, said Sodhi.
Amul, however, maintained its growth in products like fresh milk, cheese, curd, butter milk and paneer. Given the tough situation it is a big gain that Amul maintained its growth, though small and did not fall into a negative growth cycle, said Sodhi.
Besides, Amul exported dairy products’ consumer packs at Rs 250 crore during April-November 2020 -counting a rise of 55 per cent over the same period last year. Amul’s consumer packs include ghee, fresh cream, butter, Cheese, and UHT milk packs.
Lockdowns had also many benefits for GCMMF as it launched a series of health drinks which got popular overnight. Diversifying its product portfolio it introduced several new drinks including carbonated ones.
Amul support to the global co-operative movement also won the admiration of ICA AP Regional Director Balu Iyer who tweeted “@ICAAPAC is delighted to have @Amul_Coop sponsor Coop Pitch prizes at Asia Pacific Cooperative Youth Summit 3.0! As @Rssamul has said, we need youth to make cooperatives “contemporarily cool” and “commercially viable.”
It also bears recall that the World Cooperative Monitor report 2020 published by ICA has named GCMMF popularly known by the brand name Amul in the second rank among top 300 cooperatives in the world. The ranking is based on the ratio of turnover over gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.
Amul was in the news last week after it raised prices of milk by Rs 2 per litre throughout the country from 1 July, citing higher input costs.