Milky Ways
Dr
JV Parekh focuses on the emerging trends and opportunities in the Indian
dairy-processing sector
The
dairy industry in India is going through major changes with the liberalisation
policies of the Government and the restructuring of the economy. This
has brought about greater participation of the private sector. This
is also consistent with global trends, which can hopefully lead to greater
integration of Indian dairying with the world market for milk and milk
products. India is witnessing winds of change because of improved milk
availability, a changeover to market economy, globalisation and the
entry of the private sector in the dairy industry. The value addition
and variety in the availability of milk products are on everybody's
agenda. There is an increasing demand for new products and processes.
The main reasons are an increase in disposable incomes, changes in consumer
concerns and perceptions on nutritional quality and safety, arrival
of foreign brands, increasing popularity of satellite/cable media and
availability of new technologies and functional ingredients. Today,
India is the world's largest milk producer.
Market
for liquid milk
The upsurge in milk production has thrown up challenges in milk marketing.
The country is blessed with an enormous domestic market because of the
following factors: Large population and its continuous growth, low level
of per capita milk consumption and hence large size of potential, but
latent demand, increasing purchasing power, which is already in evidence,
will transform the huge latent demand into real demand. The groups of
dairy products offering exciting marketing opportunities are liquid
milk itself, which accounts for a sizeable part of the milk consumption
products, in which our dairy industry already has demonstrated considerable
expertise, like milk powders, butter and ghee. The ability to manufacture
the relatively new and sophisticated products like cheese and
Types
of RTE foods
ice cream alongside the traditional products like paneer,
khoya and milk-based sweets are now being manufactured on a large scale.
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Utilisation pattern
As shown in Table 1, of the total milk produced in the country, nearly
46 per cent is consumed as liquid milk and the balance converted into
various dairy products, such as ghee, butter, milk powder, ice cream,
cheese, condensed milk and for making various kinds of sweetmeats having
distinct regional preferences. Dairy products An estimated 54 per cent
of India's milk production is converted into products, both. traditional
and Western. In this, the share of traditional products is about 50
per cent, accounting in 2001 for a little over 42 million tonne of milk,
which yields over 10 million tonne of mithais and other related products
per year. The growth projections for their demand in the organised sector
are presented in Table 2.
•
Export of dairy products
The new GATT regime opens up all kinds of possibilities. In Europe
and the US, farmers receive subsidies to the tune of 50-60 per cent.
In India, the subsidy levels are just about six per cent and these too
are not direct subsidies. Of the 100 countries or more signing the agreement,
the signatories from developed countries will have to bring down their
subsidies to no more than 10 per cent. This will make their products
costly by 30-40 per cent. Indian milk is possibly one of the cheapest
in the world. Only New Zealand and Australia used to have lower prices.
In most Western countries, subsidies form 50-60 per cent of the primary
price. SAARC countries (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan,
Sri Lanka, Maldives and Middle East) are promising destinations. Milk
product prices are high in the SAARC countries. India can reasonably
look to the emerging market opportunities abroad owing to the GATT provisions.
With increasing supply of milk, the country need not have to restrict
conversion of milk into milk products. The trend in milk production
vis-à-vis domestic consumption indicates a possible exportable
surplus of 100,000 metric tonne of dairy products.
Commercial
production of traditional products
With the increase in the availability of liquid milk and Western
dairy products, refinement in the marketing network and significant
improvement in per capita income, there is an increased pressure for
the restructuring of the indigenous milk product industry. Now, the
organised sector has started showing keen interest in processes and
equipment for manufacturing traditional productsstandardisation of products,
as well as refinement in packaging and improvement in safety and shelf
life. Any innovation which can enable the organised sector to manufacture
and market indigenous milk products on an industrial scale can have
a farreaching impact on the dairy industry as well as on the economic
condition of milk producers. The market for indigenous products far
exceeds that for Western dairy products like butter, milk powder and
cheese. A great scope exists for further expansion of the market for
indigenous milk products, provided quality and safety are ensured and
the shelf life is extended to facilitate distribution over larger areas.
Major innovations are needed in manufacturing, quality assurance, packaging
and process engineering to adapt these products to current marketing
and consumer requirements. Some commercial processes have been developed
to manufacture ghee, khoya, shrikhand and gulabjamun, but much is required
to be done.
