A new multi-State co-operative, that will engage in collection of milk in 20 States and 2 Union Territories — including Karnataka and Tamil Nadu — was announced at an event in Gujarat on Sunday.
Christened as ‘Sardar Patel Co-operative Dairy Federation Ltd,’ the co-operative body has been registered at Gandhinagar in Gujarat, under Section 7 of the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002. The new cooperative body will engage only in milk collection 20,000 “untapped” village-level milk cooperatives in various States and will not rival either GCMMF or any other state-level dairy federations that exist in the states, officials said.
A logo for this new body was unveiled by Union Home and Co-operative minister Amit Shah at an event at Anand to mark completion of four-years of establishment of the Union Ministry of Co-operation. “This Sardar Patel Co-operative Dairy Federation will help farmers at a level that Amul does by engaging in fair ppractices of procuring milk and providing appropriate pricing,” Shah added.
This co-operative with an initial corpus of ₹200 crore will bring together small and big unregistered milk co-operatives on a single platform. Of the 300 lakh litres of milk collected by GCMMF daily, 20 per cent of the milk comes from 20 different States outside Gujarat and sourced from 20 lakh farmers. The registration of the new multi-State co-operative does not allow it to indulge in credit or housing related activities in any form.
The area of operations of this new co-operative body will be confined to Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh , Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Union Territories of Dadra and Nagar Havel, Daman and Diu, and Jammu and Kashmir.
In 2023, Amul had faced political backlash in both Karnataka and Tamil Nadu for trying to sell dairy products in these States. In May 2024, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, MK Stalin had written a letter to Amit Shah to direct Amul to desist from procuring milk from milk-shed areas of Aavin, a dairy brand owned by Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Ltd. In April, 2023, Karnataka saw a political slugfest after Amul announced entry into fresh dairy market in Bengaluru by introducing fresh milk and curd. Karnataka Milk Federation owns the dairy brand Nandani which is popular in Karnataka and other regions.
GCMMF will hold 20 per cent equity in the new milk cooperative body, while 60 per cent of the equity will be shared between the other district cooperative milk unions in Gujarat that function under the GCMMF umbrella. The remaining 20 per cent equity will be distributed among the village-level milk cooperatives in other States and Union Territories from whom milk will be procured.
“We will connect only will the individual village-level cooperative societies which are not affiliated to any state-level milk cooperative bodies. We will not touch villages which are already affiliated with State-level dairies and milk unions. We are only tapping only those uncovered and unrepresented in the cooperative sector,” Jayen Mehta, MD of GCMMF said adding that there are about five lakh uncovered villages that lie outside the existing milk cooperative framework.
When asked if the new multi-State cooperative will have a brand of its own that may rival Amul, Mehta said, “This body is only for milk procurement. It will not get into any processing or marketing activities. It will not rival any other State-level milk cooperative. We would aim to strengthen the cooperative movement in the country, without undermining the power of any of the state federations.”
In a separate initiative, GCMMF along with Sarhad Dairy in Kutch also set up a new co-operative body of salt producers. This cooperative is expected to unite small ‘agariyas’ — community engaged in traditional salt farming practices — on a common platform. “The profit for producing salt will now got to agariyas,” Shah said adding that it will help be a model for small salt producers.
“If there is no transparency, then co-operative movement does not continue for long. Studies of various countries that have seen co-operative movements end, show that lack of transparency has been the reason. Wherever technology has not been adopted, co-operatives have been able to compete. In co-operatives where the interest of the members were not taken into account, have also closed down,” Shah said seeking infusion of more transparency and technology into the co-operative sector.