National dairy body aims at creating a strong brand for pulses

The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) – which started the initiative of marketing pulses – aims to create a strong brand that offers quality pulses in the country, as it looks to scale it up with a long-term view.

Its wholly-owned subsidiary Mother Dairy Fruits & Vegetables is selling pulses under brand Safal.

NDDB Chairman T Nanda Kumar said that that the step is not only to further leverage on brand Safal but also to bring in a change in the entire value chain of pulses and maximise gains for the farmers by offering them the right price.

He said that the first phase of test marketing has already been completed.

Supply chain

“Our strength will be that we will source it from farmers and farmer producer companies in the major pulse producing regions in the country. It is being done with a long-term view. We will create a brand that offers good quality and clean pulses.”

He said that the back-end tie-ups with farmers and farmer producer companies will take time and scaling up will depend on getting the supply chain in place.

With food safety being the burning issue this year, Kumar said that inspection systems have been further strengthened by the co-operatives. He pointed out to the challenge at the distribution level in areas that face frequent power cuts.

“Mother Dairy and Amul have already started selling the ‘extra shelf-life milk’ product in a limited way. Other large co-operatives will also offer this product and we will look at taking it forward,” he said. This product is not packaged in a tetra-pack, but processed in a manner that if has longer shelf life when kept in ambient temperatures. He said the product even has potential in key metros that face frequent power cuts especially during summers.

Milk prices

Talking about the milk prices, Kumar said that he does not see any chances of increase in prices for farmers at least till the next summer. He said that milk prices this year have taken a beating and it may impact investments in the dairy sector and farmers may tend to reduce feeding which is likely to affect productivity gains.