Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal today inaugurated a dairy and ice cream plant set up by Milkfed at Bhatinda with an investment of Rs 32 crore.
Verka is the flagship brand of Milkfed (The Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation).
The foundation stone for the modern dairy and ice cream plant was laid in April, Milkfed said in a statement.
Verka is the leading dairy brand of the region with a large consumer base. The new plant would mainly cater to the ice cream demand of consumers of the region.
Verka Bathinda Dairy has an initial capacity of 1 lakh litre per day, which is being augmented to 2 lakh litres per day.
"We are elated on the inauguration of the new unit. The project is worth Rs 32 crore and Rs 22 crore has been spent on this fully automated unit and the balance Rs 10 crore has been spent on village level infrastructure for procuring milk from the farmers in Bathinda and Mansa districts," Verka Chairman Amarjit Singh Sidhu said.
This has resulted in enhanced milk procurement of 25 per cent this year over last year, he added.
"The project would help in value addition of milk which will help the Federation to pay more price to the farmers. The unit would also open employment avenues for the youth in the region," Sidhu said.
Currently, Verka has around 7,000 village milk producers' cooperative societies, with over 3,80,000 members. These village level cooperatives work under 11 district milk producers' unions with 10 milk plants having a consolidated milk handling capacity of around 18,00,000 litres per day.
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