While Amul already has a limited presence in Hyderabad, where it ships in fresh milk and milk products from its plants in West India, it has now inked an MoU with the Andhra Pradesh government for setting up an extensive milk procurement and processing network.
“Our main focus in AP is milk procurement as the quality of the milk is more or less similar to what we get in Gujarat. We plan to make AP our procurement hub for South India that will feed key markets like Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Vijayawada, Vizag and Chittoor in the south,” RS Sodhi, managing director, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which manages the Amul brand, told TOI here.
Sodhi said GCMMF is initially planning to start with procurement of about 4-5 lakh litres of milk per day from four to five districts of AP and then ultimately scale it up to 30-40 lakh litres of milk per day across more districts.
“We are looking at investing Rs 150-200 crore over the next three to four months in setting up our base in the South,” he said, adding that Amul is open to utilising processing capacities of cooperatives or even private dairies initially after which it will focus on setting up its own processing facilities.
He indicated that Amul eventually plans to set up processing facilities in almost all districts of AP from where it is procuring milk.
The plan is to sell fresh milk and milk products like curd and paneer initially and then later set up facilities for value addition locally, he explained. Amul will be procuring the milk directly from farmers through cooperative societies and expects its foray to expand the organised milk market in South India.
