Visakha dairy to appoint consultant for milk powder plant

Visakha Cooperative Dairy (VCD) has decided to appoint a consultant for setting up a milk powder plant at Rajanagaram in East Godavari district. VCD has already acquired 20 acres of land at Rajanagaram a few years back.

It plans to set up a 30-tonne per day capacity milk powder plant and a two-lakh litres per day capacity dairy involving a total investment of Rs 30 crore.

Speaking to Business Standard, NV Venkata Rao, managing director of VCD, said, "We have already imported secondhand machinery worth Rs 4.5-crore from Australia. We need another Rs 3.5-4 crore for installing the equipment. For this, we will be inviting tenders shortly to appoint a consultant, who will take the responsibility of installing the machinery." The Rajanagaram plant will start milk powder production from next fiscal, he added.

VCD has been procuring milk in East Godavari district from the last one year. "Currently, we procure one lakh litres of milk a day in East Godavari district and sell around 80,000 litres per day in that district alone. We plan to double the milk procurement in the district within a year as there is scope to collect at least four lakh litres per day in that district. Keeping this in mind, we are planning to set up a two-lakh litres per day capacity dairy at Rajanagaram, the capacity of which can be increased to four lakh litres per day," Rao said.

This apart, VCD is also planning to set up a 20,000-litre capacity diary in Orissa, provided the Orissa government agrees. The dairy already sells its Visakha brand milk in some of the districts in Orissa that are close to Andhra borders.

"The response in the Orissa market is good. To study our dairy activities, members of house committee on cooperative dairies of the Orissa government recently visited Visakha dairy and appreciated our activities and welfare schemes. The house committee members have promised to put forward our proposal of setting up a small dairy in Orissa before their government," he said.