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Union Home Minister and Minister for Cooperation Amit Shah urged dairy behemoth Amul to lead an initiative on creating marketing infrastructure for organic agri products in the country and support the wealth creation for farmers.
“There is a need to fast-track the adoption of organic products. It also needs more investment. I urge the management of Amul Federation to develop infrastructure for organic testing, distribution and marketing. They have a farmer connect on the ground and a network of the village. I know, Amul can do it,” Shah said.
“You bring a scheme and we will go to the Prime Minister and the government of India will also help in this,” he said after inaugurating dairy projects of AmulFed Dairy in Gandhinagar on Sunday.
India’s largest dairy cooperative, Amul can expand its purview and rope in newer areas to replicate the success of cooperatives into other areas, the Minister said.
Future blueprint
Shah stated that it was a sheer coincidence that Amul celebrates its 75th year parallelly with India’s 75 years of Independence.
“After 25 years, we will be celebrating centenary year for India’s Independence and Amul will also celebrate its 100 years. What will be Amul’s position then? I suggest preparing a blueprint for the next 25 years and expanding the horizons for cooperation and Amul in newer areas,” Shah said, suggesting that it would multiply farmers’ income as there is a huge demand for trusted certified organic food products worldwide.
Earlier in the day, Shah inaugurated AmulFed Dairy’s (a unit of Gujarat Cooperative Milk and Marketing Federation’s (GCMMF)) new milk powder factory, poly film manufacturing plant, new robotic storage facility, built collectively with an investment of ₹415 crore in Gandhinagar.
The robotic high-tech warehousing facility can store 50 lakh litres of long-life milk in carton packaging in high-density storage. AmulFed Dairy has an enhanced milk handling capacity of 50 lakh litres per day (LLPD), up from 35 LLPD. The milk powder plant has a capacity of 150 tonnes per day (TPD).
More capacity
Shah, accompanied by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, Chairman of GCMMF Shamalbhai Patel and other cooperative leaders, inaugurated a new Amul butter plant, which triples AmulFed Dairy’s butter manufacturing capacity from 40 TPD to 120 TPD. The plan enables the dairy to effectively handle a higher quantity of milk fat, especially when milk procurement soars during the peak season.
Shamalbhai Patel stated that with the new investments and capacity augmentation, Amul Federation looks to double the annual turnover from the current ₹53,000 crore to ₹1-lakh crore by 2025.
Gujarat Chief Minister termed it a big driver for women empowerment as over 11 lakh women are engaged in the dairy cooperative space in the State. Apart from Gujarat, Amul Federation is also sourcing milk from 13 other States. It has 87 dairy manufacturing plants with a total milk handling capacity of 390 LLPD.
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