 "Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a gathering during the golden jubilee celebration of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, in Ahmedabad on Thursday. Photo: PTI")
Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi on Thursday urged stakeholders to make the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the apex organisation that markets products under the ‘Amul’ brand, the world’s largest dairy company.
Modi made the pitch while addressing nearly 100,000 people at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, to celebrate the golden jubilee celebration of the GCMMF.
The co-operative, which began operations in 1973-74, saw its revenues touch Rs 72,000 crore in FY23. It has its sights set on becoming a Rs 1 trillion company by FY25-26, and currently exports to more than 50 countries.
“At present, Amul (GCMMF) is the world's eighth-biggest dairy sector company. You all need to make it the world's largest dairy company. My government is with you in this endeavour and it is Modi's guarantee,” the PM said in his address.
Giving an overview of India's booming dairy sector, he said it is growing at a rate of 6 per cent per annum while the global dairy sector is growing at 2 per cent.
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Jayen Mehta, GCMMF managing director, told Business Standard: “Amul fully supports the honourable Prime Minister’s vision of becoming the world’s largest dairy company. We already expect our revenues to be more than Rs 80,000 crore by the end of this financial year. It is already the world’s strongest dairy brand.”
PM Modi was accompanied by Gujarat Governor Acharya Devvrat, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, and state BJP president CR Paatil at the event.
“Amul was established as the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union under the guidance of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel and later, the GCMMF came into existence. The GCMMF is a model that showcases how the cooperative sector and government can work together. Thanks to that model, India has become the world's biggest milk producer today,” Modi added.
R S Sodhi, the former managing director of GCMMF said: “I am lucky to have spent 41 years at Amul. When I joined the co-operative in 1982, it then had a turnover of Rs 121 crore and when I left, its turnover touched Rs 72,000 crore.”
“I have seen Amul’s journey to become a strong food company. The founders of the co-operative have put together a tremendous and efficient supply chain from farmer to the consumer and all stakeholders are happy,” Sodhi added.
He said that GCMMF focused on building its own distribution network in the 1980s because its milk was earlier distributed by super stockists.
In the next decade, the co-operative went on to become the No.1 ice cream brand.
GCMMF’s biggest milestone was to take milk production outside of Gujarat after 2010.
Currently, the GCMMF has 18 member unions with more than 3.6 million farmers across 18,600 villages in Gujarat. Over the past 50 years, GCMMF has played a critical role in making India the world’s largest milk producer, accounting for 24 per cent of global milk production, it said in a release.
GCMMF came into existence on July 9, 1973, when six dairy cooperatives joined hands under the leadership of social entrepreneur and dairy engineer Verghese Kurien, fondly remembered as the ‘Milkman of India’.
