‘Ship of the desert’ pushes Amul to its limits

Rajkot: The humped beast of the desert is pushing home-grown dairy giant Amul to its limits. Within a month of its launch in select markets of Gujarat, the sales of Amul camel milk has reached nearly 2,000 litre a day.
And Sarhad Dairy, a member union of the country’s largest milk provider — Amul federation — is under pressure to ‘milk’ the ship of the desert to the fullest.

Cattle breeders and co-operative societies from Banaskantha district within Gujarat and neighbouring Rajasthan have already knocked the doors of the Kutch District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited (KDCMPUL) popularly known as Sarhad Dairy requesting the Kutch dairy to start procuring milk from their camel-shed areas. And the demand of camel milk is forcing Amul to launch the product in other markets.

“We have got tremendous response to the camel milk because of its health benefits. Within the next 10 days, we are planning to launch it in Rajkot, Vadodara and Surat markets,” Sarhad Dairy’s chairman Valamji Humbal told TOI.

The Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) – the body that markets brand Amul – had launched camel milk in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar and Kutch as ‘test markets’ before a month. In cities like Vadodara, it is available at specific super market chain stores.

Sources in GCMMF said that ever since its launch, the federation has been flooded with inquiries from sports associations, federations, celebrities and consumers in metro markets who want to treat their taste buds with the slightly salty taste of this milk which provides a soothing after-affect even as it is beneficial to the diabetics.

“We have got very good response to camel milk and we are in the process of expanding the sales area soon,” said GCMMF’s managing director R S Sodhi.

Sarhad Dairy has installed new milk processing plant which has capacity to process 20,000 litre camel milk per day. But the challenge lies in procuring milk of camel as the population of this even-toed ungulate remains scattered in the desert making it the costliest milk. Amul itself sells it at Rs 50 for half a litre.

Although the demand for camel milk has surged, sources in GCMMF said that serving to the demand is a challenge because of the milk’s short shelf life. “If it is transported to markets like Mumbai through air, it will become even more expensive,” said a dairy official.