"We have India's largest cheese making capacity of 40 tonnes per day. The Russian demand is huge and with opening of Indian dairy products imports into Russia, there is big prospect for business," said Devendra Shah, chairman, Parag Milk Foods Pvt Ltd, on the sidelines of the launch of its new packaged butter milk product in Ahmedabad. Shah added that the Russian export demand is roughly estimated to be around 500 tonnes per month.
According to Shah, the company is mulling cheese capacity expansion from current 40 tonnes per day to about 100 tonnes per day, given the cheese consumption in Russia of about 250,000 tonnes per day. Apparently, the company's cheese processing plant in Manchar is expandable upto 200 tonnes per day.
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The launch of its 'Go' brand of packaged butter milk comes at a time when the company is bullish about dairy beverages in the country.
"With the launch of Go Butter Milk, we want to gain foothold in the fast-growing dairy beverages market. Dairy Beverages market in the country is estimated at three million litres per day, translating into market size of Rs 5,500 crore and growing at 25 per cent in volume terms every year. While we had launched our Topp-up beverages (sweetened milk with natural ingredients like Cardamom, Mango, Pista, Strawberry, etc.) in the market during 2013, with the launch of Go Buttermilk, we are expanding our portfolio of beverages further," Shah added.
With one milk and milk product processing plant each in Manchar and Palamner, the company process 2 million litres of milk per day.
Parag Milk Foods also has its own dairy farms spread over 35 acres of land wherein it intends to increase its procurement from current 1.2 million litres per day to two million litres per day in next three years. Meanwhile, the company expects to grow its turnover from current Rs 1450 crore in FY '15 to Rs 2100 crore by 2015-16 on the back of exports and new products.