Amul
targets space on
Wal-Mart shelves
IANS[
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2003 12:52:47 AM ]
CHENNAI:
Amul, the country’s largest milk producing cooperative is negotiating
with global supermarket chain Wal-Mart to sell its range of dairy products.
The
model Indian company is also attempting to tap the vast export potential
in neighbourhood markets like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.
Officials
of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) presented
the success story of their brand Amul at the 5th Foodpro 2003 conference
organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that concluded
Tuesday.
They
said India is expected to produce 135 million tonnes of milk by 2010.
"Milk
is one produce in India where production has gone up many fold in the
last two decades. But the price has never fallen or caused a loss to
the cattle farmer," Amul officials said.
Amul's
success story is well documented.
Beginning
in 1946 as a cooperative in just two villages of Gujarat, collecting
only 247 litres of milk, the company is today India's top brand for
dairy products -- ranging from milk and butter to cheese and ice cream.
Amul
already sells its products in neighbouring Nepal.
Countries
like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh import over 50,000 tonnes of
milk each annually. Pakistan alone imports 65,000 tonnes.
Now
India and GCMMF are looking at capturing this million-dollar neighbourhood
markets.
Sri
Lanka is flooded with an Indonesian brand, which is said to be of an
inferior quality and also costs less.
With
Tetramilk, Amul is now establishing a distribution chain in Sri Lanka
and hopes that its products will find a place in the island nation in
2004.
Pakistan
has bigger milk import expenditure than Sri Lanka.
With
improving trade relations between the countries, GCMMF is hoping that
its talks with Pakistani officials will soon bear fruit.
In
countries like the US, Britain, Singapore and Malaysia, Amul's Indian
desserts like srikhand and gulab jamuns are very popular.
Then
there are markets like Australia where Amul butter already finds a place
and the company is looking to sell its other products.
In
India, GCMMF has 500,000 retail outlets through which it plans to bring
agri-products into the market.
With
the Amul ice cream brand firmly established, GCMMF's cold chains too
are now in place. These will be used for other products like pizzas
soon, officials said.
