Amul marketer GCMMF to invest ₹1,200 crore to ramp up capacity

“Even during the Covid-19 lockdown, we have witnessed growth in dairy products consumption. However, there is an adverse impact on the HoReCa segment, where the demand is down by about 30 per cent. But overall consumer demand in most markets has recovered,” he said.

Amul had earlier announced its plans to invest about approx ₹1,500 crore over the next two years.

Valamji Humbal, Vice-Chairman of GCMMF and Chairman of Sarhad Dairy, said that capacity addition in Rajkot will be a big push for the region’s dairy farmers, who have to transport the milk to Gandhinagar for processing.

Transport costs
“The Saurashtra region produces milk to the tune of about 35 lakh litres per day, of which about 10-12 LLPD or so gets processed at the local processing centres, whereas a large quantity of about 20-25 LLPD has to be transported to Gandhinagar’s Mother Dairy for further processing. This involves transport costs as well as wastage, additionally due to 12-hour travel, the milk quality also gets impacted,” said Humbal. “This will mean improved margins for the dairy farmers,” he added.

“In order to overcome these challenges, we are setting up a processing facility in the centre of Saurashtra region. In the next few months, that will be finalised,” he said.

Amul is also aggressively expanding its presence in Eastern markets, including Kolkata, North-East and Andhra Pradesh. Andhra Pradesh has milk production almost similar to Gujarat and the State government has also extended its support to Amul for developing “Amul-model” of cooperative dairying in the State.