Karnataka's milk production is likely to grow by 55 per cent in five years to touch 70 lakh tonne in the current year (2005-06) from 45 lakh tonne in FY 2000-01. Last year (2004-05) it touched 60 lakh tonne. |
The state's current daily milk production is estimated to be 31.7 lakh litres, compared to 25 lakh litres in 2004-05, and 22 lakh litres in 2003-04. It has set a target of 42 lakh litres by 2008-09. |
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Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) sells about 31 lakh litres of milk in the state and the rest is converted into powder, curd and ice creams. |
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With abundant milk production, the Karnataka Milk Federation is now planning to export surplus milk powder to bring stability in the prices. |
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"KMF has identified six countries for exporting milk powder and a licence is expected any time," said a senior KMF official. |
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KMF is aiming to export to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, Malaysia and the Philippines. To facilitate exports, KMF plans to set up a dairy at Whitefield to process milk from Mandya, Tumkur and Bangalore Rural districts. |
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The federation's ice-cream plant capacity is also being expanded from 3,000 litres a day to 10,000 litres. |
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KMF is also planning to increase the processing capacity of Mother Dairy. Infrastructure will be set up at a cost of Rs 35 crore to process seven lakh litres of milk daily, said the official. |
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"KMF has a market share of 65 per cent in liquid milk through direct sales in major towns and cities in the state. Bangalore is the key market with daily sales of 10.3 lakh litres," the official said. |
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He added that over 85,000 litres of curds and 10 tonne of ghee are also sold in each day. |
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Recently, at NDDB's Mother Dairy premises in Yelahanka, KMF commissioned plant to produce 30 tonne of milk powder a day. Surplus milk of 3.5 lakh litres from the Bangalore, Kolar, Tumkur, Mandya and Hassan milk unions is to be converted into powder. |
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The state was able achieve rapid growth in milk and dairy products due to the Rs 250 crore grant from the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for the growth of the dairy sector. |
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"With this grant, the state was able to go in for rapid infrastructure creation and modernisation right from the milk procurement stage to processing," said Prof R N Sreenivas Gowda, animal and poultry health consultant at the veterinary college at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. |
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One of the modern practices adopted by the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) at the behest of the National Dairy Development Board NDDB is power saving at chilling and processing plants by regular energy audits. |
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"This has had a major impact on KMF as it has 13 milk unions and 17 dairies under its management. The federation was able to make considerable savings," said Gowda. |
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Introduction of HACCP method of quality measurement and adoption of ISO 9001 practices to prolong the shelf life of products also allowed the federation to go in for product diversification into low fat, fat free and slim milk products in addition to regular powder, flavoured curds and ice cream. |
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