Jan 12, 2021
Parag Milk Foods Ltd., along with many of its milk and milk products plans to add weightage to its cheese and whey business through the introduction of high potential lactose products, thereby expanding its health & nutrition range.
In Oct’ 2017, Parag established India’s first and only manufacturing facility to produce whey protein and introduced various related-products in the market including Avvatar, a B2C product. Avvatar is India’s first 100% vegetarian whey protein. The company has also ventured into whey protein powders, a by-product in the cheese manufacturing process.
According the company statement, “Through the commissioning of the lactose plant, the company is now intending to add higher value to whey permeates generated during the filtration process of whey protein. Whey permeate contains a high concentration of lactose, a natural milk sugar with fat and minerals, that is normally sold as a substitute to skimmed milk powder (SMP). Pure lactose, which largely consists of edible lactose used in confectionaries and food additives, and pharma-grade lactose used by the pharmaceutical and nutrition industries, garners a higher value and has a vast potential for growth”.
With the functional plants, Parag has therefore established facilities with a capacity to manufacture 40 MT of lactose per day. The company said it can create lactose for segments such as food applications, infant nutrition and clinical nutrition products.
According to global analysis, the lactose market size in 2018 stood at $1.2bn and is proposed to grow to $1.5bn by 2026, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.7% during this period. The Indian lactose market size is between 40,000-45,000 MT and is valued at about $70m, with a major part of the requirement, are met through imports from dairy producing countries.
Parag said that with high potential and huge opportunity, it has a fully integrated value chain with control over the entire process from procurement and supply chain to processing and distribution, which help to maintain standards of quality and delivery throughout the demand chain.
Devendra Shah, chairman, said, “Being a large cheese player, we always had whey protein and therefore lactose as a by-product, to which we want to further value-add to tap into high-quality ingredients for the Indian market. With our end-to-end manufacturing capabilities across the value chain, we are well placed to support the PM’s impetus towards ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by reducing the import dependence of the country on lactose.
“Being agile in our response to market changes, we are constantly innovating our product offerings and concentrating on tie-ups with partners focused on quality. Consumers have become increasingly conscious about nutrition and there are a big shift and preference for trusted brands. As the market is shifting towards premiumization with a clear thrust towards value-added dairy products, we are the forerunners with more than two-thirds of our portfolio comprising of value-added products. With the addition of lactose to our portfolio, we are expecting our Health and Nutrition portfolio to grow further in the next two years, which will also improve our profitability.”
Under the brand name of ‘Gowardhan’, Parag offers traditional products like ghee, dahi and paneer, while under the Go brand it produces cheese, UHT milk, buttermilk, lassi and yogurt. Parag Milk Foods Ltd, established in 1992, is the largest private dairy FMCG company with a pan India presence having manufacturing facilities in Manchar in Maharashtra, Palamaner in Andhra Pradesh, and Sonipat in Haryana.