The share of plastic pouched milk in the overall Indian milk market will increase to 47% by 2025 from 30% today as this is the most cost-effective way to distribute and supply the commodity, Dr R S Sodhi of Amul told the 9th edition of Speciality Films & Flexible Packaging Global Summit 2022 that was held in Mumbai on 5 and 6 September. He was a keynote speaker on the first day.
“India is the only country where milk is sold in plastic pouches. About 90% of milk supplied by Amul is sold in plastic pouches. It has revolutionized the way milk has been supplied to consumers. If we hadn’t been using plastic pouches to pack and distribute milk, the packaging cost would have been very high. If we would have been packing 6 crore (60 million) liters of milk in glass bottles the industry’s expenses would have been Rs 37,000 crore. Packing 6 crore liters of milk in plastic pouches costs only Rs 1,600 crore. So, you can imagine the cost saving that takes place for the dairy industry,” Sodhi said.
“The volumes of milk that we are selling in plastic pouches cannot be done with any other forms of packaging. Amul is selling 1.5-1.6 crore liters of milk every day,” he added.
As of today, the total value of the milk market is Rs 8.5 lakh crores (about US$ 110 billion) while the organized dairy market is about Rs 3 lakh crores (US$ 2.5 billion). The pouched milk market is about Rs 1.5 lakh crore. “The way we are growing the organized dairy market will grow from Rs 3 lakh crore to Rs 10 lakh crore in the next 10 years,” Sodhi said. the stupendous success of Amul
Amul today is the undisputed leader in the dairy industry. According to Sodhi, there are many reasons for the company’s success but the most important one is consistency. “For the last 75 years whatever we have done, we have been consistent at it. Whether it is our business objective or providing stable and remunerative prices to millions of dairy farmers. Also, providing our products at very affordable prices to consumers. So both producers and consumers are happy. Other reasons for our success are professionalism and technological and marketing innovations,” he said.
