Godrej Jersey, the dairy business of Godrej Agrovet, has expanded milk procurement in Maharashtra and is eyeing export markets in the Middle East for value-added products like ghee.

“We have entered into Maharashtra for milk collection in a big way in areas closer to Hyderabad as there is a shortage of milk in Telangana” said Bhupendra Suri, CEO, Godrej Jersey.

Volumes to go up

“Now we have started collecting 80,000 litres a day. We were about 15,000 litres per day about one-and-half years ago. We have moved pretty fast and opened centres in Maharashtra,” he said, adding that the volumes are expected to go up.

Godrej Jersey, which operates about 10 milk processing units across the Southern states of Telangana, Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, has one unit in Nagpur. The company handles a total of 6.5-7 lakh litres of milk per day, while it has a total installed milk processing capacity of 13 lakh litres.

Liquid milk sales account for 67 per cent of the company’s sales, while value-added products contribute the rest. Over the next few years, the company expects value-added products to contribute to around 40 per cent of the revenues, Suri said. The company has been focussing on increasing its production and sales of value-added products like the UHT and flavoured milk and ghee among other products. “We are investing in expanding the UHT milk production by investing ₹20 crore which will enhance our capacity by about four times,” he added.

Godrej Jersey is also exploring options to export value-added products such as ghee to overseas markets. “We are attempting to export ghee to markets like Maldives, Dubai and UAE among others. It is a great market and we are catering to the Indian diaspora in these markets that don’t produce ghee. The prices are much higher there,” Suri added.

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