The Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the Amul brand, is eyeing a larger slice in the rapidly-growing packaged milk market of the National Capital Region (NCR).

Amul has set up its largest dairy with a processing capacity of 30 lakh litres a day (LLPD) at Dharuhera in Haryana to serve the NCR market, consolidate and grow its share in the region.

Delhi and the NCR are the largest milk market in the country, where Amul has doubled its pouched milk sales to around 24 LLPD in past three years, said R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF. Amul’s sales in NCR are growing at around 15 per cent, ahead of the market.

“Our sales in NCR have grown much faster than our expectations and that too in market with a large base,” he said.

Amul entered the Delhi market in 2003 with sales of one lakh litres a day and has seen rapid growth since then. Delhi accounts for 27 per cent of Amul’s daily sales of 90 lakh litres across the country.

“Rising incomes and shift to packaged milk are driving sales” Sodhi said. Amul commands a 46 per cent share in the pouched milk sales in the NCR region followed by Mother Dairy with sales of around 18 LLPD. The new dairy set up with an investment of Rs 450 crore will augment Amul’s processing capacity to 42 LLPD.

“There have been no big investments in the dairy sector in NCR since 1973, when Mother Dairy had set up a facility in Delhi. We have seized the opportunity and will be investing another Rs 250 crore in two dairies of 10 LLPD in the region over next two to three years,” Sodhi said.

Amul is targeting sales of about 65 LLPD in the NCR region by 2020 when the packaged milk market is expected to expand to one crore litres a day from the present 50 LLPD.

Amul is also increasing its procurement through farmer co-operatives in Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh to meet the rising demand.

Presently, Amul procures about 12 lakh litres a day from farmers in these Northern states.

> vishwanath.kulkarni@thehindu.co.in

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