Goodricke to go beyond tea, sell milk

Tea planter Goodricke is foraying into dairy farming, marking a diversification so logical yet explored by so few peers before.
The subsidiary of Camellia Plc of the UK plans to set up a dairy large enough to accommodate 2,000 milch cows somewhere in northern Bengal, according to A N Singh, managing director and chief executive officer.

It has been running a pilot dairy at Siliguri for over two years now and feels it is time to take the venture commercial, said Singh.
“With the proliferation of instant coffee and dispensers in offices and coffee joints across the country, demand for milk, particularly in powder form, has been going up, and would continue to rise in future,” said Singh.

Also, there is significant export demand, particularly from Japan, following reports of milk powder there being contaminated with radioactive cesium after the Fukushima disaster, he reasoned.
As for the investment, he conservatively indicated the company will put in at least Rs10 crore in the project to start with. “Milch cows cost Rs50,000 each and if we really go for 2,000, you can calculate yourself.”

And how long would it take to set up? That depends on two factors, said Singh. One, being a majority subsidiary of a foreign company, Goodricke needs permission to diversify. Two, the cows need to be transported from Punjab or Haryana and the company can at best get 250 in a year.

Goodricke has 17 tea gardens, of which 12 are in Dooars, three in Darjeeling and two in Assam.