Amul to celebrate golden jubilee on Thursday, discuss vision for next 25 years: GCMMF chief

Ahmedabad: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend the golden jubilee celebrations of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which owns the ‘Amul’ brand, on Thursday and inaugurate five projects worth Rs 1,200 crore, an official from the dairy major said on Wednesday.

GCMMF’s vision for the next 25 years will also be discussed, said the federation’s Managing Director Jayen Mehta.

More than 1.25 lakh dairy farmers, with representatives from around 18,600 villages in Gujarat, will attend the programme at the Narendra Modi Stadium in the Motera area of Ahmedabad. Mehta said 40-45 per cent of the dairy farmers in the audience will be women.

The federation was set up in 1973 with an annual turnover of Rs 20 crore, Mehta told media persons here.

“In the last 50 years, it has emerged as the country's number one FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) organisation, with the Amul brand set to achieve a turnover of Rs 80,000 crore, and Amul Federation a turnover of Rs 61,000 crore this financial year,” he said.

Apart from PM Modi, Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah, Union Animal Husbandry Minister Parshottam Rupala and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel will also remain present during the golden jubilee celebrations, he said.

During his visit, Modi will inaugurate five new dairy projects, including a modern cheese plant of Sabar Dairy, which has come up with an investment of Rs 600 crore, a long-life tetra pak milk plant of Amul Dairy at Anand and the expansion of its chocolate plant, he said.

The PM will also inaugurate a 50,000-litre ice cream plant of Sarhad Dairy in Kutch, a unit of Bharuch Dairy coming up in Mumbai, along with various dairy development works under government schemes in the state’s Saurashtra-Kutch region.

“The total investment of the projects is Rs 1,000-1,200 crore. On February 23, during his Varanasi visit, Modi will inaugurate a plant of Banas Dairy which has come up there with an investment of Rs 600-700 crore,” he said.

Amul’s vision for the next 25 years will also be discussed on Thursday, he said.

Even as each of GCMMF's 18 milk cooperative members takes the initiative to raise its milk handling capacity, they are expanding by setting up new plants in the state and other parts of the country, Mehta said.

Amul plans to invest Rs 11,500 crore in the next 2-2.5 years as part of the MoUs (memorandums of undertaking) signed at the World Food India event organised in New Delhi in November last year, Mehta said.

“At the event, organisations from different countries made investments of Rs 33,000 crore, out of which MoUs for investment of Rs 11,500 crore were signed by Amul alone. We will make investments in the dairy processing and collection system as well as setting up ultra modern processing plants, among others,” Mehta said.

He said the investments will largely be made in Gujarat. Member cooperatives will also invest in Varanasi, Rohtak, Ujjain, Mumbai, Goa, Pune, and Kolkata.