Amul eyes bigger share in paneer market

[rajanlove]

VADODARA/ANAND: Eyeing a larger share in domestic market, estimated at Rs 1,000 crore and the export market that has almost remained untapped,
Kheda District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL) popularly known as Amul Dairy commissioned country's first fully-automatic paneer plant on Saturday.

Amul commissioned the new facility at its existing cheese plant at Khatraj, near Mehmedabad, on the occasion of its 64th foundation day and Sardar Patel's 135th birth anniversary. The plant, where the dairy co-operative is investing Rs 45 crore, will help Amul increase its paneer manufacturing capacity from present 1,000 tonne per annum to 8,000 tonne per annum.

With over 50 per cent share in organized market, Amul is presently the only national brand that sells paneer, the dairy product that counts for an estimated Rs 1,000 crore business combining both organized and unorganized players. The share of organized players stands at around Rs 150 crore.

"With this fully automatic state-of-the-art paneer plant, we will be able to increase shelf life of paneer, which in turn will help us reach farther markets," Amul Dairy's managing director Rahul Kumar told TOI, adding that the plant, whose foundation stone was laid in March this year, is synchronization of latest equipment and machineries from Poland, Japan, France, Spain and United States. The main plant brought in from Poland-based firm Obram was customised as per Indian needs as in European countries consumption of soft cheese (similar to paneer) is popular.

To get economics of scale, the dairy has adopted the combined project of manufacturing whey powder (that is generated during the production of both paneer and cheese) at the plant. It already manufacturers 8,000 tonne per annum cheese from the Khatraj plant, while the dairy expects to commission the whey powder facility by March 2010 through which it will manufacture nearly 5,000 tonne of whey powder annually.

In June, TOI had reported that with value addition in this whey powder, Amul is planning to launch a protein-rich health powder. On a later date, Amul will be using this facility to introduce whey-based energy drinks. Over 3,000 persons, including milk producers and foreign delegates, participated in the function that saw presence of Union minister of state for micro, small and medium industries Dinsha Patel, Union minister of state for power Bharatsinh Solanki along with Amul Dairy's chairman Ramsinh Parmar and vice-chairman Rajendrasinh Parmar.