India's leading dairy cooperative GCMMF, which markets dairy products under the Amul brand, is expecting an 18 per cent growth in its turnover this fiscal year to around ₹46,000 crore on better demand, its Managing Director R S Sodhi said.

Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) had posted a marginal growth of 2 per cent during the 2020-21 financial year to ₹39,200 crore despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

In an interview, Sodhi said, “We are expecting around 18 per cent growth this fiscal year to about Rs 46,000 crore.” The demand for all products, like butter, ice cream, milk, has improved, he added.

In volume terms also, Sodhi said the growth will be around 15 per cent. In the last financial year, the GCMMF turnover grew marginally as sales of ice cream were down 35 per cent mainly because of the nationwide lockdown during the summer to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. The commodity business of products like skimmed milk powder (SMP) was also impacted.

“The cooperative sells 150 lakh litres of milk per day, of which Gujarat contributes around 60 lakh litres, Delhi-NCR 37 lakh litres and Maharashtra 20 lakh litres,” he added. It also sells milk in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Kolkata.

The GCMMF has an installed processing capacity of nearly 400 lakh litres per day. In this fiscal year, it has hiked milk prices twice. The GCMMF hiked milk price by ₹2 per litre across India from July 1 due to an increase in input costs. Last week, it announced another ₹2 per litre increase with effect from March 1, saying that milk procurement prices have gone up.

In a statement on February 28, the GCMMF had said that the increase of ₹2 per litre translates into a 4 per cent increase in the MRP which is much lower than average food inflation.

"It is worthwhile to note that in the last two years Amul has made only 4% increase per annum in prices of its fresh milk category," the GCMMF had said.

"Considering the rise in input costs, our member unions have also increased farmers' price in the range of Rs 35 to Rs 40 per kg fat which is more than 5% over the previous year," the GCMMF said.

After AMUL, leading milk suppliers Mother Dairy and Parag Milk Foods have also increased prices by ₹2 per litre.

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