World’s largest Milk Producer India set to become leading Exporter of Milk

Pashu Sandesh, 17th November 2018

India is the largest producer of the milk in the world and is now set to become the leading Exporter of Milk and Milk products as the supply is rapidly outgrowing the domestic demand. This was the popular sentiment at the recently concluded International Dairy Federation’s World Dairy Summit in the scenic city of Daejeon in South Korea.

The annual production of Milk is India is more than 170 Million Metric Tonnes (MMT) which is set to surpass more than 200MMT in next five years. This figure is much significant when compared to the World’s Annual turnover of around 850 MMT. With the rapid expansion of the infrastructure and economic push by the Indian Government through National Dairy Plan, the Annual production of Milk is bound to surpass the Domestic consumption which could then allow largely Cooperative driven Dairy sector to look for the international market through Milk and Milk products exports. 

Sensing the high production and potential profitability through exports several interventional players are making beeline to the Indian market. The focus of these international players would be the value added products such as Cheese, Yoghurt and Probiotics for which these companies are expanding their network of collection and state of the art Milk processing units. 

A recent CRISIL report predicts a 50% faster growth in the value-added products sector in the coming years, and suggests that such products would clock 14-15% annual growth over the next three fiscal years. It concludes that value-added product revenues will continue to benefit from rising urbanisation.The report, based on case studies of 100 dairy firms which together account for over 60% of the sector’s revenue, also forecasts a healthy future for the sector overall, with a steady growth in milk sales. 

Indian Cooperatives led by GCMMF would certainly not let go of this opportunity and are themselves in the process of modernisation to meet the Global demand.  As per a rough estimation,11,000 people are gainfully employed in procurement, processing and packaging of 1 lakh litres of milk. And a staggering 6 crore rural households in India depend on dairying for livelihood and income, more than 70% of which are small and marginal farmers and landless families. Considering the Milk as the biggest crop of India, prospect of the country becoming a leading Exporter would certainly realise the goal of doubling of the Farmers income by 2022.