National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has projected India’s dairy business to grow sharply by two and a half times to 30 lakh crores (INR 30 trillion) as the union government promised to further boost the dairy cooperative sector for India’s forward march in the league of leading global economies. Speaking on the projections, NDDB Chairman Meenesh Shah said, “The current value of Indian dairy business is close to Rs 13 trillion. We expect this to more than double in the next five years and reach close to Rs 30 trillion by 2027.”
Speaking at the session on the future of dairy industry at the ongoing IDF World Dairy Summit 2022 in Greater Noida today, Union Minister for Fisheries and Animal Husbandry, Parshottam Rupala maintained that the country has a sound organisational structure to help the stakeholders in the dairy business to take the sector to the next level.
“We all know how dairy cooperatives have played a crucial role in the emergence of India as the global dairy powerhouse. The government is committed to give a further boost to dairy cooperatives in association with National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) as the country is bound to make further gains in dairy output,” Rupala said at the event which also comprised an impressive gathering of delegates from around 50 countries and senior office bearers of leading global agencies like IDF, FAO, European Commission, among various other international institutions.
“I am happy to tell you that the country now has a set of food policies which match global benchmarks in dairy and other food products. We have food regulators like FSSAI which is playing a critical role in bringing in transformative regulations,” Rupala further said.
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The value addition in India will be defining the trend in the future, the minister said, adding that the government is not only committed to help stakeholders in shoring up production but has also put in place regulations comparable to the global standards to ensure that consumers get nutritious dairy products.
According to NDDB chairman, while the dairy sector would maintain an average growth rate of 15 per cent, some of its value-added verticals like organic milk, cheese, flavoured milk and lassi will be growing at over 20 per cent. “These products are slated to drive the growth of the Indian dairy sector in the coming years,” he added.
Amul’s Managing Director, RS Sodhi also projected that the Indian dairy sector is going to make massive gains at the global level in the coming decades. “Currently, we are producing 23 per cent of the total global production. By 2045, this may well shoot up to 47 per cent,” he said.
Meanwhile, the inaugural day of the event also saw participation by some of the leading global dairy experts who emphasised new challenges that have surfaced post-Corona. “Two key challenges that have surfaced in the recent years for the global dairy industry relate to the emergence of bovine disease in some countries affecting their cattle force and inflationary pressures that have also gripped dairy businesses. Global stakeholders need to come together to deal with these challenges which are making the near-term prospects somewhat uncertain,” Janusz Wojciechowski, EU Commissioner for Agriculture, commented.