Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which sells dairy products under the Amul brand, expects an 18 percent increase in revenue this fiscal year due to increased demand, amounting to approximately Rs. 46,000 crores.
During the 2020–21 fiscal year, GCMMF increased by 2% to Rs. 39,200 crores despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
Amul’s Managing Director R S Sodhi said, “We are expecting around 18 per cent growth this fiscal year to about Rs 46,000 crore.” The demand for all products, like butter, ice cream, milk, has improved, he added. In volume terms also, Sodhi said the growth will be around 15 per cent. In the last financial year, the GCMMF turnover grew marginally as sales of ice cream were down 35 per cent mainly because of the nationwide lockdown during the summer to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. The commodity business of products like skimmed milk powder (SMP) was also impacted.
The cooperative sells 150 lakh litres of milk per day, of which Gujarat contributes around 60 lakh litres, Delhi-NCR 37 lakh litres and Maharashtra 20 lakh litres, he added.
Amul also sells milk in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Kolkata. The GCMMF has an installed processing capacity of nearly 400 lakh litres per day.
In this fiscal year, it has hiked milk prices twice. The GCMMF hiked milk price by Rs. 2 per litre across India from July 1 due to an increase in input costs. Last week, it announced another Rs. 2 per litre increase with effect from March 1, saying that milk procurement prices have gone up.
GCMMF had said that the increase of Rs. 2 per litre translates into a 4 per cent increase in the MRP which is much lower than average food inflation.
It is worthwhile to note that in the last two years Amul has made only 4% increase per annum in prices of its fresh milk category. This price hike is being done due to a rise in costs of energy, packaging, logistics and cattle feed that has led to an increase in the overall cost of operation and milk production.
Seeing the rise in input costs, our member unions have also increased farmers’ price in the range of Rs. 35 to Rs. 40 per kg fat which is more than 5% over the previous year.
Amul as a policy passes on almost 80 paise of every rupee paid by consumers for milk and milk products to milk producers.
After AMUL, leading milk suppliers Mother Dairy and Parag Milk Foods have also increased prices by Rs 2 per litre.