Operation flood
* The US plant has a 200,000 litre per day capacity
* Amul plans to enhance its product portfolio later
* India is now the world's biggest milk producer
Amul's utterly-butterly products are now fast invading the kitchen shelves and restaurants in the US.
Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the owner of Amul brand, has begun manufacturing ghee, paneer and shrikhand (a sweet dish made of yogurt) in a third party-owned facility in New Jersey. It is now reaching out to the huge Indian diaspora spread across the US as well as other Asian communities.
"We just started our US operations in October. The plant, owned by a non-resident Indian Piyush Patel, has a capacity of 200,000 litre per day. Our products are available in several cities in the US and we have seen tremendous customer response," R S Sodhi, managing director of GCMMF, told dna.
Asia's largest milk brand, Amul is already a known brand in the US and Canada. "We have been exporting butter, cheese, gulab jamun and some beverages to the US market. We may look at start producing some of these products such as butter in our New Jersey plant," says Sodhi.
The US plant is Amul's first manufacturing plant outside India.
"The US plant has helped Amul save on duties and taxes levied on exports of dairy products from India," he said. In the past, Amul faced a lot of challenges to get export markets open up for milk products.
Sodhi said the entire marketing of the products is done by Amul. It is now making the products available across the length and breadth of the huge US market.
GCMMF clocked an annual turnover of Rs 18,143 crore in 2013-14, up 32% from Rs 13,750 crore in 2012-13. It had posted 18% growth in turnover in the previous year.
India has now overtaken the European Union to become the world's biggest milk producer, according to the government's annual economic survey. Milk production grew 4% year on year and recorded peak production of 132.4 million tonne in 2012-13.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}