Gaurav Pande, CEO Creamline Dairy Products Ltd
The dairy industry has long measured itself in a familiar set of numbers. Litres procured. Market share gained. Cold chain capacity added. Distribution reach expanded. These figures built the industry and, for the most part, still run its boardrooms. But somewhere in the last couple of years, a different conversation has begun to gain ground in the consumer space. The question is increasingly not only how much milk is moving, but what milk, curd or paneer is doing nutritionally for the person consuming it. That shift, quiet as it has been, says a lot about where this industry is headed
South India did not arrive at this moment by accident. This is a region that never really needed convincing about dairy. Curd with rice, buttermilk after a meal, curd accompanying a meal, these were never trends here. They were simply how people ate. Government health data captures just how embedded that habit is amongst consumers: nationally, less than half of Indians aged 15 – 49 report consuming milk or curd daily, [1]while in states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, this number stands at three out of every four adults .[2] The same pattern shows up in how the region consumes curd: per capita packaged curd consumption across the southern states now stands at 4.2 kilograms a year, against a national average of 2.8 kilograms. [3]Southern households built this habit into daily life long before anyone in a boardroom decided to call it a growth opportunity.
[1] https://theprint.in/india/you-thought-north-consumes-more-doodh-dahi-nope-south-india-does-say-nfhs-findings/1425124/
[2] https://theprint.in/india/you-thought-north-consumes-more-doodh-dahi-nope-south-india-does-say-nfhs-findings/1425124/
[3] https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/india-dairy-market
What has changed is that the rest of the country is now trying to catch up to a habit the south already has, and it is doing so through the language of protein. A recent commissioned consumer survey found that six in ten urban Indians are not eating protein rich foods on a daily basis,[1] and that nearly three quarters of respondents surveyed could not correctly state how much protein their body needs each day[2], even though the Indian Council of Medical Research has long recommended 0.66 to 0.83 grams per kilogram of body weight [3]for a healthy adult. The challenge is not simply one of availability. Affordability, awareness and dietary choices matter as much. India produces and consumes more milk than any country.. For dairy the opportunity is to help consumers recognize the nutritional value already present in the food they know and trust.
There is a broader point worth making here. South India is sometimes viewed as a strong but relatively mature market The data suggests otherwise. Southern states are now posting the fastest value growth of any dairy market in the country,[4] and this is not necessarily because people are consuming more milk. It is largely driven by consumers increasingly choosing curd, paneer and other protein forward dairy as sources of protein in their diet. The region has quietly become the largest market in the country for protein focused food products,[5] with dairy sitting right at the centre of that shift rather than on its edges.
That reframes the opportunity considerably. A market that already trusts dairy does not need to be sold on the idea of protein. It needs to educate more on the nutritional value of what it is already consuming. That is a very different task from building a new category from scratch, and in some ways a more interesting one. It calls for less time spent convincing people and more time spent giving them language, proof and confidence around a habit that was always there. It also helps that trial has never been easier: quick commerce platforms are already seeing sharp growth in single serve, protein forward formats that ask far less commitment from a first-time buyer than a full pack ever did [6]
Consider the young professional in Bengaluru who tracks protein intake on an app but has never once counted the morning bowl of curd as part of that total, or the homemaker in Hyderabad who has made paneer a weekly indulgence ritual without ever framing it as a protein choice. The opportunity in front of this industry is not to change what consumers in South India consume. It is to help them see what they already doing, bring the nutritional value of their choices in the conversation, and to build products, communication and trust around that truth.
The dairy business that understands this first will not just win a regional market. It will end up shaping how the rest of India starts to think about protein, using a script the south has been quietly writing for generations.
[1] https://www.business-standard.com/content/press-releases-ani/india-s-protein-gap-a-survey-by-localcircles-country-delight-reveals-60-of-urban-india-is-protein-deficient-126020500669_1.html
[2] https://aninews.in/news/business/indias-protein-gap-a-survey-by-localcircles-amp-country-delight-reveals-60-of-urban-india-is-protein-deficient20260205131456/
[3] https://aninews.in/news/business/indias-protein-gap-a-survey-by-localcircles-amp-country-delight-reveals-60-of-urban-india-is-protein-deficient20260205131456/
[4] https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/india-dairy-market
[5] https://www.imarcgroup.com/india-protein-based-product-market
[6] https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/2026-india-protein-industry-report–skyrocketing-prices–the-next-big-disruption-in-a-inr-30-9-cr-market-growing-at-17-7-cagr-302781624.html