ITC moves to milk dairy sector

Armed with its decade-long experience in livestock development, ITC Ltd is planning to enter the dairy sector next fiscal with a bouquet of value-added products such as ghee.

The diversified conglomerate is expecting its 2,00,000 litres a day milk processing facility at Munger, Bihar, to be operational over the “next few months”. The brand name of the dairy business is yet to be finalised.

Indian dairy sector is now dominated by Amul and Nestle.

“We are hopeful of launching the dairy products by next year (2015-16),” Chitranjan Dar, Chief Executive, ITC's Foods Division, told BusinessLine .

The Munger plant would have a capacity to produce “a number of value-added products” like ghee. Pulp milk is unlikely to be the immediate focus of the company, Dar said.

There are also plans to set up similar processing facilities in other parts of the country. Expansion of the Munger facility will also be considered.

Dar did not elaborate on the price and distribution nuances of the products.

However, he maintained that offerings will be at “competitive prices”.

From 2003-04, ITC worked with village communities on extensive livestock development programme to create sustainable livelihoods for farmers.

Munger was one such place where artificial insemination programmes to improve milk productivity was done.

“We realised the potential of the segment some two years back. Accordingly, we began work on the Munger facility,” he said.

According to Dar, ITC would leverage its own backend process to facilitate procurement of milk from the farmers.

Juices, dairy and food items come under the “other” FMCG category for ITC, which account for over 21 per cent (or ₹6,445 crore) of the ₹30,603-crore turnover it reported in the first nine months of the fiscal.

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