The country’s leading milk co-operative which sells its dairy products under the brand name “Amul”, in a strategic move, has been procuring milk from outside its birth place Gujarat to corner the growing dairy market.

“We are procuring 7-8 lakh litres of milk daily from outside Gujarat for over last six months,” Mr R.S. Sodhi, Managing Director of Amul’s body Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), told PTI over phone.

This is in addition to procurement of about one crore litres of milk daily from within Gujarat, Mr Sodhi added.

Formed in 1946, the Anand (Gujarat) based GCMMF, the market leader of milk in the country, is purchasing milk from Maharashtra, West Bengal, Bihar, Haryana and Rajasthan, the Managing Director said.

Earlier, the co-operative, which spurred white revolution in the country, used to cater the milk needs of the entire country from Gujarat itself.

Milk is purchased strictly from dairy co-operative and not from individual or other agency, he said.

Mr Sodhi said, “though procurement of milk outside Gujarat is low at present at around 7-8 per cent of the total procurement, we wish to increase it to 50 per cent to give benefits to dairy farmers outside Gujarat too.”

He said currently the co-operative is concentrating on these five states, but would expand to others later on.

Amul is the largest food brand in the country and world’s largest pouched milk brand with an annual turnover of $1,700 million in 2009-10.

Besides India, Amul has entered overseas markets such as Mauritius, UAE, USA, Bangladesh, Australia, China, Singapore, Hong Kong and a few South African countries.

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