By 2025, India's dairy industry aims to double its processing capacity: Atul Chaturvedi 

Pashu Sandesh, 27th July 2020

Atul Chaturvedi, Secretary, Dept. of Animal Husbandry & Dairying, Govt of India on 23rd July while addressing a meeting through webinar as said that India's dairy industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world and has set the goal to double its processing capacity from 53.5 MMT to 108 MMT by 2025. The government in its roadmap for 2025 for the dairy sector also aims to increase value-added products from 23% to 40% and India's exports share in the world from 0.36% to 10%, he added.

Addressing a FICCI webinar on 'Development of Indian Dairy Sector', Chaturvedi said that the dairy sector was facing a crisis before the onset of the pandemic. However, the industry was able to turn the COVID crisis into an opportunity. There was an improvement in the supply of milk substantially by cooperatives and the average liquid milk consumption by cooperatives was higher during the period. He added that the average procurement price of milk also increased, which helped 1.7 crore farmers. 

Chaturvedi said that the Indian dairy is Rs 10 lakh crore industry with significant growth potential and highlighted the five key investment opportunities for the private sector. It included production and supply of affordable compound cattle feed; enhancing chilling infrastructure by setting up new BMCs; setting up processing infrastructure; enhancing processed milk distribution capacity, and enhancement of D2C milk supply across top consumption hubs.

Siraj Hussain, Former Secretary, MOFPI & Ministry of Agriculture, Govt of India said that the share of eastern India in milk processing is very less and urged the government to look at ways to correct this situation. He added that FSSAI should engage the private sector to compile data as there is no information available on the milk processing capacity of the dairy sector.

Hussain pointed out the urgent need to spread awareness about the use of processed milk. Owing to several myths related to the use of processed milk, there is no demand for it in certain parts of the country leading to the closure of private diaries. He added that augmenting domestic demand for processed milk by organizing campaigns is crucial.

In his presentation on Indian dairy sector, Mohit Bhasin, Partner, KPMG India said that despite being the largest producer, India lags behind in per capita consumption of milk, the share of processed milk products and yield per animal. However, the dairy sector is all set to move to the next level in the processed food segment driven by quality and product innovation. He added that processed milk, value-added milk products both traditional and non-traditional and healthy beverages can become the growth segments.

Dr R S Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF (AMUL) said that dairy sector provides not only nutrition but also a sustainable source of livelihood to 70 million-plus farmers involved directly in dairying. The dairy sector is all set to move to the next level by improvement in productivity, building brand India in milk segment, product innovation and increasing penetration of organized segment. He added that efforts should be made so that dairy can become an attractive profession for future generations.

Dr Prashant Shinde, Commercial Director-Dairy Feed Business, Cargill India said that for the future growth of the milk output, it is important to ensure availability of feed and fodder, expand the creation of silage preparation, promote the use of compound cattle feed and educate farmers on good dairy farming practices. He added that the use of compound feed can not only increase milk yield but also enhance the net profitability of dairy farmers.

Ranjith Mukundan, CEO & Co-Founder, Stellapps Technologies said that the dairy sector holds immense potential to bring the rural economy back on track. High-end technologies can transform the dairy value chain by unlocking access to relevant insights, products and services at the right time to smallholder farmers. He added that quality and traceability solutions can make India an export hub in dairy and data-driven decisions in dairy farming can lead to building smart dairy value chain.

Dilip Chenoy, Secretary-General, FICCI said that the objective of the session was to develop the roadmap for transforming the initiatives into well-directed efforts for the development of Indian dairy sector to enhance milk production for doubling farmers' income, promoting entrepreneurship and value creation along with dairy value chain to mitigate effects of COVID on dairy sector while establishing national milk brands globally.

A FICCI paper on 'Development of Dairy Sector in India' was also released during the webinar.