Amul Coop | |
Company type | Cooperative |
Industry | Dairy |
Founded | 14 December 1946 |
Founder | Tribhuvandas Patel |
Headquarters | Anand, Gujarat, India |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Jayen Mehta (managing director) |
Products | Milk products |
Revenue | ₹52,000 crore (US$6.5 billion) [1] (2022) |
Owner | Dairy Producers of Gujarat |
Number of employees | 1,000 (officers and employees) 3.6 million (milk producers) [1] |
Divisions | |
Website | amul.com |
Amul is an acronym (Anand Milk Union Limited) of the Indian Multinational cooperative society named Gujarat Milk Marketing Federation based in Anand, Gujarat. [2] [3] It is under the ownership of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited, Department of Cooperation, Government of Gujarat. It is controlled by 3.6 million milk producers. [4]
Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel founded the organisation in 1946 and served as its chairman until his retirement in the 1970s. He hired Verghese Kurien in 1949, [5] [6] initially as the general manager, where Kurien guided the technical and marketing efforts of the cooperative. Kurien briefly became the chairman of Amul following Patel's death in 1994, and is credited with the success of Amul's marketing. [7]
Amul spurred India's White Revolution, which made the country the world's largest producer of milk and milk products, [8] and has since ventured into overseas markets. [9]
Amul was found on 19 December 1946 as a response to the exploitation of small dairy farmers by traders and agents. At the time, milk prices were arbitrarily determined, giving Polson an effective monopoly in milk collection from Kaira and its subsequent supply to Mumbai. [10] [11]
Frustrated with the trade practices (which they perceived as unfair), the farmers of Kaira, led by Tribhuvandas Patel, approached Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, who advised them to form a cooperative. If they did so, they would be able to directly supply their milk to the Bombay Milk Scheme instead of working for Polson. [12] Sardar Patel sent Morarji Desai to organise the farmers. [11]
Following a meeting in Chaklasi, the farmers formed the cooperative and resolved not to provide Polson with any more milk. [12] Milk collection was decentralised, as most producers were marginal farmers who could deliver, at most, 1–2 litres of milk per day. Cooperatives were formed for each village. [13] By June 1948, the KDCMPUL had started pasteurising milk for the Bombay Milk Scheme. Then-Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Anand to inaugurate Amul's cattle feed factory. On 31 October 1964, he spoke to farmers about their cooperative. After returning to Delhi, he set in motion the creation of an organisation, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), to replicate the Kaira cooperative in other parts of India. Under the leadership of Tribhuvandas Patel, in 1973, Amul celebrated its 25th anniversary with Morarji Desai, Maniben Patel, and Verghese Kurien. [14]
The cooperative was further developed through the efforts of Verghese Kurien and H. M. Dalaya. Dalaya's innovation of making skim milk powder from buffalo milk was a technological breakthrough that revolutionised India's organised dairy industry. [15]
With Kurien's help, the process was expanded on a commercial scale, which led to the first modern dairy cooperative at Anand. This cooperative would go on to compete against the established players in the market. [16]
The success of the trio (T. K. Patel, Kurien, and Dalaya) at the cooperative's dairy soon spread to Anand's neighborhood in Gujarat. Within a short span, five unions in other districts – Mehsana, Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha, and Surat – were set up, following the approach sometimes described as the Anand pattern. [11]
In 1970, the cooperative spearheaded the "White Revolution" of India. To combine forces and expand the market while saving on advertising and avoiding competing against each other, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., an apex marketing body of these district cooperatives, was set up in 1973. The Kaira Union, which had the brand name Amul with it since 1955, transferred it to GCMMF. Technological developments at Amul have subsequently spread to other parts of India. [17]
In 1999, it was awarded the "Best of All" Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award. [18]
The GCMMF is the largest food product marketing organisation in India. As the apex organisation of the dairy cooperatives of Gujarat, it is the exclusive marketing organisation for products under the brand name Amul and Sagar. For more than five decades, dairy cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 3.1 million village milk products with crores of consumers in India. In 2007, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd crossed US$1 billion in its sales turnover and entered the elite club of food companies having this distinction from India. [19] In one more major achievement, the dairy cooperatives of Gujarat under the GCMMF fold crossed the mark of milk procurement of 10 million kilograms per day on 27 December 2007, which is the highest ever milk procurement achieved by any dairy network in India, be it private or cooperative. The entire quantity of milk received was accepted without any milk holidays and was processed successfully into milk and other milk products. [19]
In 2018, Amul inaugurated a new chocolate plant in Mogar, Anand, near their headquarters, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in attendance. The new plant has been built with an increased capacity of 1,000 tonnes per month against the earlier 250 tonnes per month capacity. GCMMF has invested around ₹3 billion in this project. It is a fully automated production factory with minimal human intervention. [20]
Amul and the Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) collaborated in 2024 to introduce fresh milk to the US market. [21]
Amul's portfolio has experienced a growth rate of 53% over the years. Long-life ultra-high-temperature processing (UHT) products for urban populations, like Amul Taaza, are packed in Tetra Pak cartons that undergo ultra-heat treatment to remove all harmful micro-organisms while retaining the nutrition in the milk. Amul sells around 400,000–500,000 litres of UHT milk and other value-added products per day. Further, forecasts this demand continue growing at 25%. The UHT products have allowed Amul to become the leader in the packaged milk segment without the requirement of maintaining a cold supply chain. [22]
In 1966, Amul hired Sylvester daCunha, the managing director of an advertising agency, to design an ad campaign for Amul Butter. DaCunha created an operation consisting of a series of hoardings featuring topical ads related to day-to-day issues. [23] It was popular and earned a Guinness World Record for the longest-running ad campaign in the world. In the 1980s, cartoon artist Kumar Morey and scriptwriter Bharat Dabholkar were involved in sketching the Amul ads; the latter rejected the trend of using celebrities in advertisement campaigns. Dabholkar credited chairman Verghese Kurien with creating a free atmosphere that fostered the development of the ads. [24]
Despite encountering political pressure on several occasions, daCunha's agency has made it a policy not to back down. Some of the more controversial Amul ads include one commenting on the Naxalite uprising in West Bengal, one on the Indian Airlines employees' strike, and one depicting the Amul girl wearing a Gandhi cap.
In 2013, Amul tweeted a picture featuring the Amul Butter Girl, implying that "freedom of choice" died in 2013, in opposition to the Supreme Court of India overruling the judgment of the Delhi High Court and criminalising homosexuality again. [25]
On 17 October 2016, the Amul Butter Girl celebrated 50 years since she first appeared in the topical ad, titled "Thoroughbred". The ad showed a jockey holding a slice of bread during the horse race season in 1966. The impish Amul girl had appeared for the first time even before that, with Eustace Fernandez showing her offering bedtime prayers with a wink and a lick of lips, saying "Give us this day our daily bread: with Amul butter". [26]
Their ad on Aagey Badhta Hai India had an excellent response from the audience. It spoke about how their milk is seen as a household product, with a catchy tune associated with it. It has over 39 lakh (3.9 million) views on YouTube. [27]
In February 2020, Amul posted a picture of the Amul girl treating Joaquin Phoenix with butter after his academy award win for his role in the 2019 film, Joker. [28] Since Phoenix is a vegan, Amul faced criticism from vegans in India and PETA for the poor knowledge of his vegan activism and life.
Amul posted a picture of its mascot, the Butter Girl, celebrating with PV Sindhu for winning the bronze medal in Women's singles Badminton tournament at the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021. [29]
The White Revolution inspired filmmaker Shyam Benegal to base his 1976 film Manthan on it. The film was financed by over five lakh (half a million) rural farmers in Gujarat, who contributed ₹2 each to its budget. Upon its release, these farmers went in truckloads to watch 'their' film, making it a commercial success. [30] [31] Manthan won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi during the 24th National Film Awards in 1977.
In August 2019, Amul became the first Indian dairy company to enter Rabobank's Global Top 20 Dairy Companies list. [32]
Verghese Kurien was an Indian dairy engineer and social entrepreneur who led initiatives that contributed to the extensive increase in milk production termed the White Revolution.
Anand is the administrative centre of Anand District in the state of Gujarat, India. It is administered by Anand Municipal Corporation. It is part of the region known as Charotar, consisting of Anand and Kheda districts.
The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) is a statutory body set up by an Act of the Parliament of India and an Institution of National Importance. It is under the ownership of the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying of the Government of India. The main office is in Anand, Gujarat with regional offices throughout the country. NDDB's subsidiaries include Indian Dairy Machinery Company Ltd (IDMC), Mother Dairy and Indian Immunologicals Limited, Hyderabad, NDDB Dairy Services, NDDB Mrida Ltd., NDDB CALF Ltd. The Board was created to finance and support producer-owned and controlled organisations. Its programmes and activities seek to strengthen farmer cooperatives and support national policies that are favourable to the growth of such institutions. Cooperative principles and cooperative strategies are fundamental to the board's efforts.
Anand District is an administrative district of Gujarat state in western India and whose popular nickname is Charotar. It was carved out of the Kheda district in 1997. Anand is the administrative headquarters of the district. It is bounded by Kheda District to the north, Vadodara District to the east, Ahmedabad District to the west, and the Gulf of Khambhat to the south. Major towns are Umreth, Khambhat, Karamsad, Tarapur, Petlad, Borsad and Sojitra.
Manthan, also released under the translated title The Churning, is a 1976 Hindi film directed by Shyam Benegal, inspired by the pioneering milk cooperative movement of Verghese Kurien, and is written jointly by him and Vijay Tendulkar. It is set amidst the backdrop of the White Revolution of India. Aside from the great measurable success that this project was, it also demonstrated the power of "collective might" as it was entirely crowdfunded by 500,000 farmers who donated Rs. 2 each. Manthan is the first crowdfunded Indian film.
White Revolution or Operation Flood, launched on 13 January 1970, was the world's largest dairy development program and a landmark project of India's National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). It transformed India from a milk-deficient nation into the world's largest milk producer, surpassing the United States in 1998 with about 22.29 percent of global output in 2018. Within 30 years, it doubled the milk available per person in India and made dairy farming India's largest self-sustainable rural employment generator. The program was launched to help farmers direct their own development, and to give them control of the resources they create.
The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) is a dairy cooperative from Karnataka, India, which sells products such as milk, curds, ghee, butter, ice cream, chocolates, and sweets under the brand name Nandini. It is a federation of milk producers under the ownership of Ministry of Cooperation, Government of Karnataka. Almost every district in Karnataka has milk producing co-operatives. The milk is collected from farmers who are its members, processed and sold in the market under the Nandini brand. It is the second-largest milk co-operative in India after Amul.
Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel was an Indian independence activist, lawyer, and politician. A follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he is regarded as the father of the cooperative movement in India, most notably in the Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union in 1946, and the Anand Co-operative movement.
Many farmers in India depend on animal husbandry for their livelihood. In addition to supplying milk, meat, eggs, wool, their castings (dung) and hides, animals, mainly bullocks, are the major source of power for both farmers and dairies. Thus, animal husbandry plays an important role in the rural economy. The gross value of output from this sector was 8,123 billion Rupees in FY 2015–16.
Parthi Bhatol was the ex-chairman of the Banaskantha Milk Producers' Union. He was ex-chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF). on 26 April 2006, replacing its founding chairman, Verghese Kurien.
Tribhuvandas Foundation is a public Charitable trust working with the AMUL milk cooperatives in and around Kheda district of Gujarat. Its mission is to work for betterment of health in rural communities of Central Gujarat.
Amrita Patel is an Indian businessperson associated with cooperative dairy sector as well as environmentalist. She headed National Dairy Development Board from 1998 to 2014 which led the world's biggest dairy development program Operation Flood. She chaired several other institutes and has been a member of board of banks. She was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2001.
The Amul girl is an advertising mascot used by the Indian dairy brand Amul. The mascot is a hand-drawn cartoon of a young Indian girl dressed in a polka-dotted frock with blue hair and a half-pony tied up. The Amul girl advertising has often been described as one of the best Indian advertising concepts because of its humour.
Polson is the name of a dairy products brand that was started in India by Pestonjee Eduljee in 1915 in Mumbai. Polson's first dairy was set up in Anand, Gujarat at the cost of ₹7 lakh (US$8,800) in 1930.
The cooperative movement in India plays a crucial role in the agricultural sector, banking and housing. The history of cooperatives in India is more than a hundred years old. Cooperatives developed very rapidly after Indian independence. According to an estimate, more than half a million cooperative societies are active in the country. Many cooperative societies, particularly in rural areas, increase political participation and are used as a stepping stone by aspiring politicians.
The Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited, popularly known as Dudhsagar Dairy, is a division of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation which is under the ownership of Ministry of Cooperation of the Government of Gujarat.
Banas Dairy is a division of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation which is under the ownership of Ministry of Cooperation, Government of Gujarat based in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat, India and is Asia's largest milk producer. It was founded in 1969, in accordance with the 1961 rule of the National Dairy Development Board under Operation Flood. Galbabhai Nanjibhai Patel played an important role in the foundation of the dairy. It is headquartered at Palanpur.
Dara Nusserwanji Khurody was an Indian entrepreneur known for his contributions to the dairy industry of India. He worked in various private and government organization at the start of his career and also held government official positions later on. He was the Milk Commissioner of Bombay from 1946 to 1952. His name was considered "synonymous with dairying" in India in the 1950s. He received the Ramon Magsaysay Award jointly with Verghese Kurien and Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel in 1963 and the Padma Bhushan from the Government of India in 1964.
Harichand Megha Dalaya was the inventor of the first spray-dryer for buffalo milk in the world. His invention revolutionized India's dairy farming industry and laid the foundation for Amul cooperative's immense success.
Jayen Mehta is an Indian business executive. He serves as the managing director at the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF), the largest food product marketing organization in India and a state government-owned cooperative society, known for its brand Amul. Prior to this, Mehta held the position of Chief Operating Officer of Amul.
If there was one technological breakthrough that revolutionized India's organized dairy industry, it was the making of skim milk powder out of buffalo milk. The man who made this possible and who had the foresight to defy the prevailing technical wisdom was H. M. Dalaya.