Krishna milk society clocks Rs 44cr turnover

The Krishna District Milk Producers' Mutually Aided Cooperative Society Limited, chasing a target of Rs 155 crore, achieved a Rs 44-crore turnover for the quarter ended June 30, 2006.

The turnover consisted of milk worth Rs 28 crore and milk products worth Rs 16 crore under the brand name 'Vijaya'. Last year, the union posted a turnover of Rs 142 crore comprising milk worth Rs 80 crore and milk products worth Rs 62 crore.

Its procurement target for the current financial year is 1.92 lakh kg milk per day while its sales target has been fixed at 1.45 lakh litres per day. The union procured 1.84 lakh kg per day and sold 1.42 lakh litres per day last year.

M Janakiramaiah, chairman of the second biggest dairy in the state, told Business Standard that the milk union had also crossed another milestone in its ambition to become a global player in the dairy industry by notching up an ISO 22000:2005 food safety management system certificate from Det Norske Veritas BV (DNV), Netherlands.

The dairy received this certification for maintaining world standards in good agricultural practices, clean milk production programme, good hygiene and manufacturing practices, he said.

Janakiramaiah said that the union exported milk worth Rs 1.44 crore to Singapore in 2005-06.

"We plan to double the supply this year. Arrangements are also being made to export milk to Malaysia, UAE and Bahrain. Removal of subsidies to the dairy industry in the European countries has now opened those markets to 'Vijaya' milk and products," he said.

He said that the union would increase the number of milk societies from 636 to 678 and the number of farmer-members from 1.28 lakh to 1.32 lakh this year. The union collected milk directly from 900 villages through 35 milk collection centres within a 50-kilometre radius of the factory here.

The fodder centres located at Buddhavaram and Gudlavalleru manufactured 48 tonne of fodder every day and sold it to farmers at no-loss-no-profit, he said, adding that the union also supplied over 400 tonne of maize fodder to farmers in Krishna and Guntur, Prakasam and Nellore districts and to their counterparts in Karnataka, Goa, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh.

He said that about 100 farmers were given Rs 500 each to grow nutritious 'Co-3' grass in 60 days. Each of them again supplied seedlings to 10 farmers, thus increasing the number of plots to grow grass to 1,000.