Milkfed ties up with two banks, plans big dairies

Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation, popularly known as Milkfed Punjab, has tied up with two public sector banks to provide loans to farmers as an effort to increase milk production, which includes setting up of 100 commercial dairies in the state.

"We have identified farmers who are capable of commercial ventures in the state and who can increase milk production. These names have been forwarded to the banks," Milkfed Managing Director V K Singh told PTI.

He said the cooperative has tied up with Allahabad Bank and Oriental Bank of Commerce to provide soft loans to farmers.

Singh said the work for setting up modern dairies has already started and more than 50 per cent of the projects have been already cleared for loan disbursements by the banks.

The annual turnover of Milkfed was Rs 725 crore in 2006-07 and with the projects expected to start yielding results in the next six months, Singh said.

When asked about the cost of project, he said, "It can vary from one farm to others depending upon the size of the dairy but the total cost of setting up 100 commercial dairy farms would be around Rs 40 crore."

Other than helping farmers get soft loans, the federation would also provide improved technical input services to farmers and would implement modernisation of process and operations.

After carving a niche in the domestic ghee market with its brand 'Verka', the co-operative is expecting it to touch Rs 20 crore," he added.

Milkfed is also looking to export skimmed milk powder to other countries as the ban on the export of milk powder is expected to be lifted by September.

"We were mainly targeting the urban consumers in Punjab and Chandigarh but with the improvement of milk procurement in this fiscal, the federation will also foray in to the export of skimmed milk powder," Singh added.