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The announcement by Amul, owned by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation that it was going to launch its milk and curd in Bengaluru, has sparked a political uproar in Karnataka, ahead of polls on May 10.
Political parties are milking the issue with the opposition claiming that Amul’s entry will impact State dairy cooperative Karnataka Milk Federation’s (KMF) brand Nandini negatively.
On April 5, when Amul took to Twitter to announce its foray into Karnataka, tweeting, “A new wave of freshness with milk and curd is coming to Bengaluru. More information coming soon.#LaunchAlert,” it spawned a spate of retaliatory hashtags . #SaveNandini and #GoBackAmul started trending on Twitter as locals amped up support for Nandini which has a loyal customer base across districts in the State.
Nandini brand
The conflict escalated in the last three days as opposition leaders from Congress and Janata Dal (Secular)(JDS) accused the ruling BJP government of “killing” the State’s homegrown Nandini brand.
Congress leader Siddaramaiah calling out PM Modi wrote, “You have already stolen banks, ports, and airports from Kannadigas. Are you now trying to steal Nandini (KMF) from us?” on Twitter.
Similarly, JDS’ HD Kumaraswamy in a series of tweets voiced his concern that Amul’s entry would impact KMF’s business and the livelihoods of thousands of dairy farmers in the State. He said that it’s an accepted practice for State cooperatives to not enter States that have their own cooperatives, because of which Nandini has not forayed into the Gujarat market and Amul should also abide by the same. He has also alleged that the State government has given GCMMF huge rental space at a cheaper price in Koramangala, Bengaluru.
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Milk prices have risen more than 15 per cent in the past yearChief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said the ruling party wouldn’t be banning Amul from entering the market. “Nandini products are being sold in other States too. The government will take steps to help Nandini in competing with Amul in the open market, but will not block Amul. Nandini will become the number one brand in the country,” he said.
The issue has its roots back to Union Minister Amit Shah’s statement in the recent past. Shah had said that GCMMF and KMF would work together to set up primary dairies in all villages in Karnataka in the next three years.
This led to protests by the opposition who speculated that a merger was afoot and a clarification by the government that there was no such thought.
KMF is the second largest dairy co-operative in the country after Amul. It ranks first in procurement and sales in South India. The cooperative is said to be buying milk from 25-26 lakh dairy farmers in Karnataka. KMF has indicated that it believes its low-price point and its established reach in the State will help the Nandini brand to face competition from Amul, even if it enters the market.
On e-commerce platform
GCMMF has said that Amul will be selling its products only on e-commerce platforms.
Amidst political backlashes, Nandini has received support from the locals. Bengaluru’s hotel association - Bruhat Bengaluru Hotels Association - in a statement has said that it will only be using Nandini milk to support the State’s dairy farmers. Various pro-Kannadiga groups on Twitter have even discouraged people from buying Amul products.
A crucial votebank
Political analyst L Manjunath said that dairy farmers are a crucial votebank and their voting can determine the outcome specially in a number of semi-urban and rural seats which is why all political parties were trying to woo them.
“While Amul has been available mostly in modern trade and e-commerce platforms, opposition parties hope to leverage fears of Gujarat headquartered Amul taking over the market at the cost of local dairy farmers. BJP’s central leadership hailing from Gujarat gives them one more lever to attack the government,” he said.
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