During the pandemic in 2020-21, the world’s eighth largest dairy group Amul procured 14% more milk, yet its turnover rose at a sluggish pace of 2%, owing to downfall demand in bulk consuming segments of HoReCa.
The Amul Group’s turnover, which includes the operations of the eighteen member dairies of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), surpassed Rs. 53,000 crore in fiscal 2020-21, a 2% increase over the previous year’s figure of Rs. 52,000 crore.
The Amul brand was valued at Rs. 39,248 crore for 2020-21, up roughly 2% from Rs. 38,550 crore the previous year. Notably, GCMMF’s turnover increased by a healthy 17% year on year in 2019-20.
According to GCMMF, the positive turnover rise occurred “despite the detrimental impact of the Covid pandemic on demand from restaurants, hotels, and catering segments, as well as the bad impact on dairy commodity markets.”
The dairy cooperative, currently in its 75th year, began with 250 litres of milk per day in two small villages in Anand district in 1946 and now handles over 29 million litres of milk per day during peak season.
The GCMMF announced at its 47th annual general meeting on July 20 that milk procurement at all GCMMF member unions increased by 14% during 2020-21. During the pandemic, the cooperative handled an additional 35-40 lakh litres of milk every day.
“Over the previous eleven years, our milk procurement has seen a tremendous increase of 171 percent,” stated Shamalbhai Patel, Chairman of GCMMF. This massive increase was caused by the high milk procurement price paid to our farmer-members, which climbed by 136% during this time period. The highly remunerative pricing has helped us keep farmers interested in milk production, and greater returns from dairying have encouraged them to increase their investments in milk production.”
“Since out-of-home consumption in hotels, restaurants, cafés, and catering segments was considerably hit during the Covid pandemic, we concentrated our emphasis on improving in-home consumption of our products,” R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director, GCMMF, stated. We changed our marketing campaigns to educate and teach people on how to prepare restaurant-style foods at home utilizing our product line.
Due to Covid-19, Amul’s consumer pack business expanded by 8.1 percent in 2020-21, whereas bulk dairy commodities, as well as sales from restaurants and hotels, declined.
“We were able to overcome the impact of demand from the institutional market due to impressive growth in sales of our consumer products in the household segment,” Sodhi added.
“Our ultimate goal is to become the world’s largest dairy organisation, assuring the health, nutrition, and wellness of people across India and then around the world, thereby ensuring sustained prosperity and remunerative livelihood for Indian dairy farmers,” stated Vice-Chairman Valamji Humbal.
By 2025, the cooperative wants to quadruple its group turnover to Rs. 1 lakh crore.
The AGM decided to hold many activities to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Amul cooperative movements as well as the birth centenary of Dr. Verghese Kurien, the father of the “White Revolution.”