Amul’s popular milk and dairy products—marketed by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF)—is the first Indian food brand to hit a turnover of Rs 1 lakh crore ($10.75 billion) in 2025-26. It is a dominant player not only domestically but also globally as the GCMMF is the largest farmer-owned dairy cooperative.

The produce of 3.6 million farmers directly reaches the consumer, cutting out the middleman, and exemplifies how cooperatives dramatically transform their livelihoods.

Unlike the majority of their counterparts in crop cultivation whose incomes are under severe stress, these dairy farmers are paid every day of the year for their daily supply of 35 million litres of milk. The cooperative also provides subsidised cattle feed and veterinary services.

Replication beyond Gujarat

Amul’s success naturally led to its replication beyond Gujarat with 16 million farmers across the country supplying milk to 185,903 dairy cooperative societies, which is processed in 222 district cooperative milk unions and marketed by 28 state marketing federations, all of which makes India the world’s largest milk producer.

Amul hit the historic milestone with double-digit growth of 11% over 2024-25 through an aggressive push both domestically and globally. The popular brand makes around 4% of its sales from exports to 50 countries and has raised its level of ambition to establish a presence abroad.

This entailed penetrating small towns with a population above 5,000 as also introducing its fresh milk in the US and Europe. In March 2024, the GCMMF partnered with Michigan Milk Producers Association to bring Amul’s fresh milk products to the US.

The choice of Michigan

The choice of Michigan was to honour the memory of Verghese Kurien—who kick-started the Amul revolution and was the founder-chairman of the GCMMF—and his ties as an alumnus of Michigan State University. In Spain, the GCMMF has partnered the Cooperativa Ganadera del Valle de los Pedroches.

“We are not just expanding globally; we are also expanding the very definition of what a farmer-owned institution can achieve in the modern world, ensuring that the fruits of technology and global trade reach the hands of producers,” stated Jayen Mehta, managing director, GCMMF, in a press release.

Amul’s dominance domestically and global ambitions, however, does not quite square with India being firm on its red lines to open up agriculture and dairy in free trade negotiations. The dairy ecosystem has high barriers to foreign competition, which will stay that way so long as the government insists that India does not need dairy from outside.

Any trade negotiation entails a process of give and take for greater access to each other’s markets. Freer trade in farm and dairy produce is no exception, more so as economists like Ashok Gulati believe that Indian agriculture is not as vulnerable as popularly believed—80% is reasonably competitive. So, too, is dairy.

The Rs 1-lakh crore question is whether a more self-confident Amul can lead the change in this regard as it has been described by an European trade negotiator as an “Indian state in itself”, representing farmers whose numbers exceed the population of Uruguay.

According to him, the government wants to keep them on its side, so dairy is completely off trade talks as Amul is a huge constituency, an article in Financial Times says. Amul’s stance on these issues bears watching as it expects to expand in double digits due to its commanding position.