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Milk producers of Porbandar district have joined hands to form Porbandar District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited (Sudama Dairy) and become part of the largest cooperative dairy federation Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) which owns and markets products under brand of Amul. Sudama Dairy has become the 18th milk union to join GCMMF.
According to GCMMF, milk producers of Porbandar have formed Porbandar District Cooperative Milk Producers’ Union Limited based on Amul model and it has become operational from March 22, 2014. “Porbandar Milk Union has federated with GCMMF as 18th Cooperative Milk Union,” a GCMMF statement said.
Estimated milk production in Porbander district was around 400,000 litre per day. The Porbandar Milk Union plans to procure around 200,000 litre per day milk from the district with in next two years. This would provide around Rs 300 crore per annum to milk producers in villages of Porbandar district, encouraging milk producers to develop their milk business.
After being affiliated to GCMMF, Porbandar Milk Union has initiated milk procurement activities in villages and milk producers of the district have responded well to this activity. The union plans to cover all the villages of the district under village dairy cooperative societies network in near future. It has also established modern dairy plant for milk processing at cost of Rs 3 crore in GIDC, Porbandar.
It has started ultra modern processing and milk procurement through automatic milk collection system, and milk producers have got remunerative price and market for milk at their doorstep.
Till now, many private vendors were procuring milk from Porbandar district and as a result there was lot of variation in milk prices and quantity being purchased by these vendors throughout the year.
Because of fluctuating market and high variation in milk price, milk producers were not encouraged to develop their dairy business. At present, milk producers in Porbandar are getting milk price of around Rs 495 per kg fat of milk. With establishment of Porbandar Milk Union, those affiliated with the union, are being paid price of Rs 550 per kg of fat, which is highest milk procurement price in the district.
