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The Maharashtra government is planning to revive its dairies and has earmarked ₹50 crore for their revival. It is also working to create a pan-Maharashtra brand in the State.
A senior State government official said that a detailed study would be undertaken as how the government dairies could be turned around based on existing land and other infrastructure. A lot of attention would be given for creating its own brand and niche products in the market. Dairying could become a big money spinner for the State government, the official said.
Currently, the State government dairies are only processing less than 1.20 lakh litres of milk per day out of the 125 lakh litres processed in the State. Private dairies process about 72 lakh litres and the rest is taken care by the co-operative dairies.
The State’s government premier dairy Aarey was established in 1949 at Aarey colony, Goregaon and was inaugurated by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Located in the western suburbs of Mumbai, the central dairy and surrounding colony is spread over 3,166 acres of prime land.
The official pointed detail studies would be undertaken as to leverage the locational advantage of Aarey as well as other dairies in the State. Funding options for reviving the business would be considered in great detail.
Since 1980s the State government-controlled dairies have been on the decline. As a number of co-operatives and private dairies entered in the same market and took away that business from the government-run dairies.
The official said that State government assumed that co-operatives dairies would be more efficient therefore state dairies took a back seat. But due to corruption and inefficiencies that process never took critical mass. In the process, the farmers suffered a lot of hardships. Therefore, the new government wants to revive its dairies using the existing land and infrastructure.
Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis in a recent interview with BusinessLine had said that government dairies would revive and a brand similar to Amul having a national reach would be created.
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