AMUL

• Members:12 district cooperative milk

producers' Union
• No. of Producer Members:2.5 million
• No. of Village Societies:11,962
• Total Milk handling capacity:9.91 million
litres per day
• Milk collection (Total - 2005-06):2.28
billion litres
• Milk collection (Daily Average 2005-
06):6.3 million
litres
• Milk Drying Capacity:511 metric Tons per
day
• Cattlefeed manufacturing
Capacity:2340 Mts per day
AMUL
• More than 60 products.
• Exported to more than 20
countries.
• Founded in 1946.
• “AMUL Pattern” in co-operative
sector.
• National Dairy Development
Board
• White Revolution
• IRMA
• GCMMF - One brand
AMUL
2005-06 37736 850
2003-04 28941 616
2000-01 22588 500
1994-95 11140 355
Sales turnover US$ millions
(Rs. Millions)
Amul: Implementer - Civil Society. Reaches over 12 million
dairy farmers collecting
and marketing their milk. Supplies $20 billion worth of milk per
year to 750 towns and
cities, making India the world’s largest producer of milk
 Amul: 12 million farmers organize into 110,000 farmer
controlled cooperatives and
federate upwards over 35 years
Amul: Single focus on dairying- a prime occupation of the poor. 70
million households in India
have 1-2 milch cattle. But does not exclude the better off
Amul: Organizes 12 million farmers into a 3-tier structure: 110,000
village cooperatives, 170
milk processing unions, and 22 marketing federations. But remains a
single commodity marketing
project; not an all-responsive development program
Amul: Sheer numbers and contribution to country’s GDP (4.8% in
2002-03) give it economic
clout. Amul is the single largest food company in India. Program time:
35 yrs
Amul: Kurien leveraged support from successive Prime Ministers and
collective power of
millions, to fight bureaucracy to gain loans and create huge autonomous
federations.
Amul becomes billion-dollar entity

Presentation by Ganesh Srinivasan; for Knowledge Exchange and not for any
commercial gains

Page 1

Harit Mehta & Mitul Thakkar AHMEDABAD/VADODARA THIS week, the Taste of India
will get a billion-dollar tag.
What began as a dairy co-operative movement in the 1940s has become country’s
largest food business. The white revolution has finally created a billion-dollar brand,
all thanks to some aggressive marketing by the dairy cooperative and the foresight
of India’s milkman Dr Verghese Kurien, who created the brand Amul.
The last push to the celebrity mark has come after intelligent marketing of milk,
icecream and butter milk. And all this by maintaining the marketing spend at just 1% of the
total turnover. The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), an apex body
of 13 milk co-operatives, has clocked a turnover of Rs 4,300 crore during fiscal 2006-07 to
become a billion-dollar entity. Tbe formally declared within a couple of days. The story gets
bigger here. The ambitious federation has now set its eyes on the Rs 10,000-crore mark
over the next three years. It took four decades to Amul to become Rs 2,000-crore entity.
But, the turnover doubled to over Rs 4,300 crore within nine years from 1999 to 2007. The
controversies surrounding Dr Verghese Kurien, the father of white revolution which gave
birth to Amul, and subsequently, his unceremonious exit, has not affected the topline of
GCMMF. One of the most conservative FMCG entities — GCMMF — spends a mere 1% of its
turnover on promotions. GCMMF has written and re-written rules of the game. Amul butter
girl is one of the longest run ad campaigns in the country. “We have set the target of Rs
5,200 crore for the current fiscal,” says GCMMF managing director B M Vyas. The federation
sold liquid milk worth Rs 1,200 crore in fiscal 2006-07 and aims to cross Rs 1,500-crore mark
in FY 2007-8. he results willAmul becomes billion-dollar entity

Presentation by Ganesh Srinivasan; for Knowledge Exchange and not for any
commercial gains

Page 2

The good financial performance comes despite GCMMF’s stumbling exports during
previous fiscal following the central government’s ban on exports of skimmed milk powder.
It was the exports of milk products in parts of the world as well as buttermilk and ice-cream
that saw the milk brand through. Amul, the movement that started in cash-rich Anand
district in 1946 to empower farmers with two village cooperatives and 250 litres of milk per
day, is one of the most-trusted food brands. The turning point, believe many, was the
decision of GCMMF to replace over half-a-dozen local milk brands of its member unions with
Amul milk in Gujarat. Today, GCMMF has 13-member district co-operative milk producers’
union with about 25 lakh producer members registered with over 12,000 village societies. It
all started in mid 1940s, when Sardar Patel directed his local ally Tribhuvandas Patel to
commission farmers’ own dairy as Polson Dairy. The only organised milk procurer in those
days did not give appropriate returns to milk producers. They found their milkman in Dr
Kurien. Impressed by the efforts of Mr Kurien, Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug once stated,
“Anand has become a centre for those interested in application of co-operation to the
problems of development. Scores of countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, inspired by
Kurien’s Anand Pattern, have expressed the desire to replicate this model.” Lately, GCMMF is
concentrating on both liquid milk as well as value-added products. It introduced Amul
Cheese Spread and Amul Shrikhand in 1983 with new flavours. Amulya, a dairy whitener,
was launched in 1986 to become the leading brand in the segment. In 2000, GCMMF
launched UHT packed Amul milk. For the last three years, it is aggressively launching
pouched milk in parts of India.