Gandhinagar: Union Minister for Home and Co-operation Amit Shah inaugurated AmulFed Dairy’s new milk powder factory, butter manufacturing plant, poly film manufacturing plant, and an automated warehousing facility in Gandhinagar on Sunday. The dairy has invested Rs 415 crores in these four projects.

The capacity of the new milk powder factory at AmulFed Dairy, which is a unit of GCMMF, has gone up from 35 lakh litres per day to 50 lakh litres following an investment of Rs. 257 crore. The expansion makes it Asia’s largest fully automated dairy.

The new butter plant triples AmulFed Dairy’s butter manufacturing capacity from 40 tonnes per day to 120 tonnes. The plant has been built with an investment of Rs. 85 crore. A new robotic high-tech warehousing facility, that will allow the dairy to store 50 lakh litres of long-life milk in carton packaging in high-density storage, has been built at a cost of Rs. 23 crore.

The new poly film packaging unit doubles the plant’s capacity from 20,000 tonnes per annum to 40,000 metric tonnes, making it the biggest poly film manufacturing plant in India. The expansion has been undertaken with an investment of Rs. 50 crore.

Speaking after the inauguration, Amit Shah said Amul has strengthened each of its three pillars with the new projects.

“The procurement by 36 lakh dairy farmers, processing of milk and milk products, and marketing of the final product to lakhs of consumers are the three pillars of Amul. Amul has strengthened all three pillars with these new projects,” he said and described Amul as the biggest example of the success of the cooperative model and women empowerment.

Stressing that the cooperative model is the ideal economic model for India, he said, “Other models may work in countries having population of 2, 10, or 20 crores, but only cooperative model can help in ensuring development reaches 130 crore people. It can make everyone a partner in growth,” he reiterated and urged Amul to start preparing its blueprint for the next 25 years when it will turn 100.

The Union Cooperation Minister also said that many farmers have turned to organic farming, and urged the GCMMF management to help develop the infrastructure for testing, distribution, and marketing of organic products to fast-track their adoption.

In his address, Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said, “Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given the mantra of sabka saath, sabka vikas, sabka vishwas, sabka prayaas for the country’s development. By ushering in prosperity in the lives of lakhs of dairy members, Amul has become an embodiment of this mantra. Amul has also made an unparalleled contribution in the success of the cooperative sector in Gujarat.”

He described Amul as an invaluable gem of Gujarat, one that has given a global identity to the state. He lauded Amul for its commitment to quality saying it has become synonymous with milk and butter.

Progressive women dairy farmers from different districts were felicitated by the dignitaries on the occasion.

Earlier, GCMMF Chairman Shamalbhai Patel, said the federation is committed to doubling its turnover from Rs. 53,000 crore in 2020-21 to Rs. 1 lakh crore by 2025.

“We want to expand Amul’s activities within Gujarat and outside to ensure prosperity reaches more people, and we can contribute to the vision to double farmers’ income,” he said.

The GCMMF chairman urged the chief minister to allocate land for the AmulFed Dairy 2, which is planned near Rajkot. He said the dairy, having a capacity of 20 lakh litres per day, would be immensely beneficial to milk producers of Saurashtra.

AmulFed Dairy manufactures a range of milk products, including ice-creams, flavoured milk, lassi, buttermilk, butter, baby food, dairy whitener, milk, dahi, and many others. It is a part of GCMMF, the apex state-level marketing federation for dairy cooperatives in Gujarat, which markets dairy products under the Amul brand.

GCMMF along with its 18 district-level member unions, 18,563 village-level dairy cooperative societies and 36 lakh farmer members, constitutes the largest dairy cooperative network in India. It is the largest food organisation in the country with a group turnover of Rs. 53,000 crore in 2020-21. GCMMF and Amul Group aim to touch a turnover of Rs. 1 lakh crore by 2025.

Amul group has 87 dairy manufacturing plants with a total milk handling capacity of 39 million litres of milk per day. Besides its extensive network in Gujarat, the group also sources milk from 13 other states. Some of its member unions have also set up village-level dairy cooperage societies in West Bengal, Maharashtra, Haryana, Rajasthan, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Uttar Pradesh.

Also present at the inauguration were state agriculture minister Raghavji Patel, state cooperation minister Jagdish Vishwakarma, Dy Speaker of Gujarat Vidhansabha Jethabhai Bharwad, Dr R S Sodhi, MD, GCMMF, and others.