Food and beverage processing: Follow one offering through the chain
Processors turning crops, milk, meat and fish into packaged, branded food and drink
Follow one offering through the chain
A pouch of Amul milk
Follow a litre of milk from a Gujarat village to a pouch on your doorstep by breakfast.
Milked in 18,600 Gujarat villages
36 lakhfarmer members of Amul's federationTwice a day, members bring milk to their village cooperative society, where it is weighed, tested for fat and paid for. Amul's federation links 36 lakh farmers in 18,600 Gujarat villages through 18 member unions, and handled about 310 lakh litres a day in FY24. India produced over 247 million tonnes of milk in 2024-25, nearly a quarter of world output.1,2
Constraint Most members keep only a few animals, so heat stress, fodder shortages or cattle disease quickly cut the milk a society collects. Mk Milk & dairyH₂O WaterMz MaizeWater and sanitationChilled, pasteurised and standardised
500 lakhlitres a day processing capacity, 2024Milk is chilled in bulk coolers and trucked to a union dairy, where it is separated, standardised to the fat level printed on the pouch, homogenised and pasteurised; FSSAI rules require at least 71.5°C for 15 seconds, then cooling to 10°C or less. Amul's unions could process about 500 lakh litres a day in 2024, after most of a Rs 11,000 crore expansion.2,7
Constraint Raw milk spoils within hours if not chilled, so dairies need reliable power for coolers at thousands of village collection points. Mk Milk & dairyNH3 AmmoniaNaOH Caustic sodaH₂O WaterElectrical equipmentMachinery and equipmentSealed in a plastic film pouch
50%plastic cut asked of dairies, 2019Form-fill-seal machines turn rolls of printed polyethylene film into half-litre and one-litre pouches, filling and heat-sealing them in one motion. The pouch is cheap and light but hard to collect once used. In 2019 the dairy ministry asked federations and private dairies to at least halve their plastic use, and plastic rules now make brands responsible for recovering what they sell.3
Constraint Thin, milk-soiled pouch film has little scrap value, so meeting EPR recovery targets is a running cost for every dairy. LLDPE Polyethylene (LDPE, LLDPE)Pig Organic pigmentsOil Crude oilPlastic and rubber productsMachinery and equipmentTested against FSSAI standards
5.7%samples above aflatoxin M1 limit, 2018Every batch is tested for fat, solids-not-fat, adulterants and residues, and the dairy works under an FSSAI licence. National surveys keep up the pressure: FSSAI's 2018 national survey of 6,432 milk samples found 368, or 5.7%, above the limit for aflatoxin M1, a toxin that comes from mouldy cattle feed, and it was more common in processed than raw milk.4
Constraint Aflatoxin enters through badly stored feed such as maize and oilcake, so safety depends on farmers' storage as much as on dairy tests. Rgt Reagents and high-purity lab chemicalsMz MaizeProfessional servicesSold under one cooperative brand
11%GCMMF turnover growth, 2024-25The federation, GCMMF, owns the Amul brand, plans production across the unions, sets prices and runs the advertising, while the district unions own the dairies and pass earnings back to farmers as milk prices. The model has scaled: GCMMF's turnover rose 11% to Rs 65,911 crore in 2024-25, driven mainly by higher sales volumes.5
Constraint A cooperative must keep paying farmers competitive prices even when it cuts retail prices, which squeezes margins when feed costs rise. Mk Milk & dairyLLDPE Polyethylene (LDPE, LLDPE)Paper and packagingPlastic and rubber productsOn the doorstep before breakfast
Rs 67Amul Gold one litre, Delhi, Jan 2025Insulated trucks carry pouches overnight to distributors and milk booths, and by dawn they reach kirana shops, quick-commerce warehouses and doorsteps. Price matters most at this end: in January 2025 Amul cut its one-litre packs by Rs 1, taking Amul Gold to Rs 67 and Amul Taaza to Rs 55 in Delhi, to nudge buyers towards larger packs.6
Constraint Pasteurised pouch milk keeps only briefly, so any break in the overnight cold chain means spoiled stock and returns. Mk Milk & dairyOil Crude oilTransport and logisticsWholesale and retail tradeWhat the chain shows
Amul shows that India's food strength is pooling millions of small farms; the weak links are cold chains, feed safety and plastic recovery.
Sources
- India consistently retained its top position globally in milk production: Govt All India Radio News (Prasar Bharati), 2026
- Dairy major GCMMF sees double-digit revenue growth in FY25 on high demand for Amul products Outlook Business (PTI), 2024
- Review of milk situation: dairies asked to reduce and recycle plastic milk pouches Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, 2019
- National Milk Safety and Quality Survey 2018: report Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, 2019
- Amul reports 11% revenue growth in FY 2024-25 Indian Cooperative, 2025
- Amul reduces milk prices by Rs 1 for one-litre packs across India Free Press Journal, 2025
- Pasteurisation guidelines under FSS (Food Product Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011 Food Safety Helpline (Auriga Research), 2015