Karnataka's Nandini enters North Indian pastures to challenge dairy titans

To launch in Delhi on Thursday; to compete with Amul and Mother Dairy

The milk market in North India is all set to witness a brand war as Karnataka’s home-grown dairy brand Nandini is set to foray into the North Indian market, currently dominated by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF)’s flagship brand Amul and Mother Dairy, an arm of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB).

 

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will launch the brand in the national capital on Thursday. Initially, Nandini will offer milk and curd in the lucrative Delhi market.

 

According to a report by leading market research company IMARC Group, the dairy market in Delhi was valued at Rs 72,630 crore per annum and is expected to touch Rs 1.87 trillion by 2032, exhibiting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10.7 per cent during 2024-2032. This is the market that the South Indian major is targeting and plans to expand to Ghaziabad, Noida, Gurgaon and other parts of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan in the near future.

 

"We will compete and beat them with our quality milk," said M K Jagadish, managing director (MD) of Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), when asked about competition from players like Mother Dairy, Amul, Madhusudan, and Namaste India in the North Indian market.

 

"We procure around 92 lakh litres of milk daily, and the Karnataka market consumes around 45-50 lakh litres per day. Even after accounting for other markets, we have a surplus of 30 lakh litres of milk per day, and hence, it makes sense for us to look at the market in the North aggressively," he said.

 

The annual turnover of KMF — the second-largest dairy cooperative in India — in the last financial year (FY24) was around Rs 23,000 crore, with 2.64 million members dependent on it. With the northern foray, it expects the turnover to touch around Rs 45,000 crore by 2029.

 

GCMMF is a major player in the Delhi market. The group turnover of brand Amul reached Rs 80,000 crore in FY24, up from Rs 72,000 crore in FY23. GCMMF is also the world's largest farmer-owned dairy cooperative, with 3.6 million farmers across 18,600 villages in Gujarat, and its 18 member unions procuring 300 lakh litres of milk per day.

 

On the other hand, Mother Dairy sells more than 45 lakh litres of milk daily across the country, of which over 35 lakh litres per day are sold in Delhi-NCR. It clocked a revenue of Rs 15,000 crore in FY24, mainly driven by the Delhi-NCR market. Mother Dairy was established under the initiative of “Operation Flood”, which aimed to make India a milk-sufficient nation.

 

"We will bring milk from Karnataka to the Delhi market in the initial stage. Only when sales pick up will we consider setting up our own facilities or procurement in the North," Jagadish added.  Over the years, the steady increase in milk production has resulted in a surplus supply in many milk unions in Karnataka. Around 90 per cent of the farmers registered under KMF rear Jersey and Holstein Friesian crossbred cows. KMF had been trying to manage this surplus production by increasing milk quantity in each packet by 50 ml, with a minimal additional cost of Rs 2 per packet, since June this year.