Amul, 'Taste of India', fresh milk products go international with launch in US

Anand (Gujarat): Popular dairy brand Amul, whose tagline is ‘Taste of India’, has now launched fresh milk products on the international stage for the first time and is now ready to cater to the people in the United States.

“I am pleased to inform that Amul shall be launching its fresh milk products in the United States of America. Happy to inform that we have tied up with a 108-year-old dairy cooperative in the US – Michigan Milk Producers Association, and this announcement was done at their annual meeting on March 20 at Detroit,” said Jayen Mehta, Managing Director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which operates Amul.

“This is for the first time Amul fresh products range will be launched anywhere outside India and in a market like the United States, which has a very strong Indian and Asian diaspora,” Mehta told ANI.

Further, he said Amul hopes to expand the brand and become the largest dairy company in line with the vision given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he attended its golden jubilee celebrations recently.

Amul's entrepreneurial spirit has made it one of the strongest dairy brands in the world.

Addressing the gathering during the golden jubilee celebration, the Prime Minister asserted that a sapling that was planted 50 years ago by the farmers of Gujarat has become a giant tree.
Amul products are exported to more than 50 countries around the world. It has under it 18,000 milk cooperative committees, a network of 36,000 farmers, processing more than 3.5 crore litres of milk per day.

The evolution of the dairy sector in India and the stellar role played by dairy cooperatives since the launch of Operation Flood form an integral part of the country's growth story as the country now is the largest producer of milk.

India contributes about 21 per cent to global milk production.
It is important to note that during the 1950s and 1960s the situation of India's dairy sector was radically different as it was a milk-deficit nation and depended more on imports.

Following a visit of then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri to the Anand district of Gujarat in 1964, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) was created in 1965 with a mandate to support the creation of the 'Anand pattern' of dairy cooperatives across the country through the Operation Flood (OF) programme which was to be implemented in phases.

Verghese Kurien, widely renowned as the "Father of White Revolution" in India, was the first chairman of NDDB. Along with his team, Kurien commenced work on the launch of the project which envisaged the organisation of Anand-pattern cooperatives in milk sheds across the country from where liquid milk produced and procured by milk cooperatives would be transported to cities.