FICCI organised a webinar on ‘Development of Indian Dairy Sector’to capture the insights from dairy experts. Mr Atul Chaturvedi , Secy said that the dairy sector was facing a crisis before the onset of the pandemic. However, the industry was able to turn the COVID crisis into an opportunity. There was an improvement in supply of milk substantially by cooperatives. The average liquid milk consumption by cooperatives was higher during the period. He added that average procurement price of milk also increased, which helped 1.7 crore farmers.   

He also said that India’s dairy industry is one of the fastest growing sectors in the world . It has set the goal to double its processing capacity from 53.5 MMT to 108 MMT by 2025. The government in its vision 2025 for the dairy sector also aims to increase value-added products from 23% to 40%. Increasing India’s exports share in the world from 0.36% to 10%, is another goal, he added. Also read Organised sector share in dairy targeted at 50% in next 5 years- Atul Chaturvedi

Five key opportunities in India dairy sector

Mr Chaturvedi said that the Indian dairying is Rs 10 lakh crore industry with significant growth potential. He highlighted the five key investment opportunities for the private sector. It included production and supply of affordable compound cattle feed; enhancing chilling infrastructure by setting up new BMCs; setting up processing infrastructure; enhancing processed milk distribution capacity; and enhancement of D2C milk supply across top consumption hubs.    

Mr Siraj Hussain,  urged the government to look at ways to improve dairy development in eastern parts of India. He added that FSSAI should engage the private sector to compile data on milk processing capacity of the dairy sector.

Mr Mohit Bhasin, Partner, KPMG said that India lags behind in share of processed milk products and yield per animal. He added that processed milk, value added milk products and healthy beverages can become the high growth segments.

Two types of security by dairying

Mr R S Sodhi, MD Amul said that dairy sector provides nutrition along with sustainable livelihood to 70 million farmers.   Dairy sector is all set to move to the next level of development. It will see improvement in productivity, brand India in milk segment, product innovation and increasing penetration of organised segment. He felt that with efforts dairy could become an attractive profession for future generations. Also read India could become dairy basket of the region

Dr Prashant Shinde from Cargill said that for future growth of milk output, availability of feed and fodder is important. The farmers must be made aware of silage making, use of compound feed and best dairy farming practices. He added compound feed can not only increase milk yield but also enhance net profitability of dairy farmers.

Technology holds the key to dairy development

Mr Ranjith Mukundan, CEO Stellapps Technologies said that the dairy sector holds immense potential to put rural economy on track. The use of high-end technologies can transform the dairy value chain . The technology unlocks access to relevant insights on products and services at the right time to small holder farmers. He added that quality and traceability solutions can make India an export hub in dairy. Data driven decisions in dairy farming can also lead to building smart dairy value chain. Also read Benchmarking Dairy farmer’s performace : The Stellapps way

Mr Dilip Chenoy, Secretary General, FICCI told about the objective of the Webinar. It was mainly to point policies to enhance milk production for doubling farmers’ income. Promoting entrepreneurship and value creation along with dairy value chain shall be other objectives. FICCI released a white paper on Development of dairy sector in India during the webinar.