The world’s eighth largest dairy group Amul procured 14 per cent more milk during the pandemic in 2020-21, while its turnover grew by a sluggish pace of 2 per cent, owing to the demand destruction in bulk consuming segments of restaurants, hotels and catering during the year.
The Amul Group turnover, which includes the businesses conducted by the 18 member dairies under the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), crossed ₹53,000 crore for the fiscal 2020-21, a 2-per cent rise over last year’s ₹52,000 crore.
The unduplicated turnover of GCMMF, the marketer of Amul brand — stood at ₹39,248 crore for 2020-21, nearly 2 per cent up from ₹38,550 crore in the previous year. Notably, in 2019-20, GCMMF’s turnover had grown by a health 17 per cent over previous year.
In a statement, GCMMF informed that the positive growth in the turnover was “despite the negative impact of Covid pandemic on demand from restaurants, hotels and catering segment, as well as adverse impact on dairy commodity markets.”
The dairy cooperative — now in its 75th year — had begun from two small villages in Anand district with 250 litres of milk per day in 1946, and now handles over 29 million litres of milk a day during peak season now.
At the 47th annual general meeting of GCMMF held on July 20, the group noted that the milk procurement during 2020-21 at all member unions under GCMMF rose by 14 per cent. The cooperative handled extra 35-40 lakh litres of milk every day during the pandemic period.
Shamalbhai Patel, Chairman, GCMMF, said, “Over the last eleven years our milk procurement has witnessed a phenomenal increase of 171 per cent. This enormous growth was a result of the high milk procurement price paid to our farmer-members which has increased by 136 per cent in this period. The highly remunerative price has helped us retain the farmers’ interest in milk production; and better returns from dairying have motivated them to enhance their investments in increasing milk production.”
Pandemic fallout
Explaining the impact on business, RS Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF, said, “Since the out-of-home consumption in hotels, restaurants, cafes, and catering segments was significantly impacted during the Covid pandemic, we focused our attention on enhancing in-home consumption of our products. We redesigned our marketing campaigns to educate and inform consumers about using our range of products to try our restaurant-style dishes at home.
The consumer pack business of Amul grew by 8.1 per cent, while bulk dairy commodities, as well as sales from restaurants and hotels suffered a decline in 2020-21, due to Covid-19.
“Impressive growth in sales of our consumers products in household segment, helped us overcome the impact on demand from institutional segment,” Sodhi added.
Vice-Chairman, Valamji Humbal, said, “Our ultimate objective is to become the largest dairy organisation in the entire world, ensuring health, nutrition and wellness of people across India and then around the globe, thereby ensuring continuous prosperity and remunerative livelihood for Indian dairy farmers.”
The cooperative now aims to double its group turnover to ₹1-lakh crore by 2025. The AGM decided to mark the year for 75th anniversary celebrations of Amul cooperative movement as well as birth centenary of Dr Verghese Kurien — father of the ‘White Revolution’ with several events.
