With India’s milk production already surpassing 100 million tonne last year, the organised dairy industry is also witnessing a significant growth in the decade.
The organised dairy sector players such as Amul, Mother Dairy, Parag and other regional brand which at present occupy only18% of the total milk produced in the country, is expected to capture more than 30% of the organised markets.
“With increasing awareness about hygiene and value added products coming into market, the organised players are definitely going to play a critical role in growth of the sector,” Sharad Gupta, editor, Dairy India year book, told FE.
According the Karnal based National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI): India’s milk production is rising at 4% annually. “Output growth is seen driven by increasing demand for value-added milk products and extensive dairy development programmes initiated by government,” Sushil Kumar, director, NDRI said.
However, despite growth in the organised sector players, the private suppliers and unorganised sector players would still play crucial role in milk production and supply chain. Despite rising production, the per capita availability of milk is low at about 220 gms a day. According to Sharad Gupta, the level of integration of the country’s dairy sector with the global economy is relatively low and there is huge opportunity for the dairy sector to expand in the country. The domestic market is largely isolated from global market influences, unlike other sectors such as edible oil. “There are no commodity futures in milk powder or value added products, whereas the leading commodity exchanges as MCX and NCDEX trade in jeera, pepper and other spices and cereals,” Gupta said. India has remained as the world’s single largest producer of milk since mid 1990s followed by United States. Thanks to cooperative movements initiated in the early 1970s.
However, the packaging of the milk products will play crucial role in expanding the organised sector share in the milk production. “We have not invested heavily in the adopting modern technology in milk packaging,” D P Tripathi, senior advisor, Aseptic Processing & Packaging Association of India said.