"Dairy Market how to dominate ? Unlocking Success"

By Kuldeep Sharma•Published on April 01, 2024

I am sharing a part of the blog which I wrote last year on 31 March 2023. Please read it first.

Who is controlling the dairy market in India?

The current dairy market situation in India is passing through an interesting phase. We asked 23 questions at the beginning of this year to forecast the dairy sector . One of the questions was to check if we would be requiring winter clothes on Holi in north India. We saw a drop in temperature during March and a surge in cough and cold cases validated the existence of cold-weather.

Unprecedented rains and hail storms damaged the Rabi crops and are still a big threat to unharvested wheat crops. The meteorological department was apprehensive about the loss of the Rabi crop due to the early onslaught of heat waves. The reality is just the reverse ; and there is more crop damage due to cold-weather and rains than the heat-wave .

This weather is supporting animal productivity and it is assumed that the delayed flush may get extended till late April. As per some of the experts the milk availability will remain sufficient to meet the market demand for fresh category of products. Rain and slightly cold weather has not yet helped the ice-cream and curd segment to gain sufficient traction as expected in this part of the year.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

This is not a time for huge ghee demand. Still the ghee prices have started to move up at this time. The bandwidth of ghee prices is from Rs 350 to Rs 650 per kg. The milk prices in India at Bulk supplier level is Rs 4-7 per liter lesser than that of our traditional VLC system. Paneer and cheese are available from Rs 180 to Rs 550 per kgs.

The market is flooded with all kinds of milks, Ghee and SMP. It is high time for the regulator to step in and take necessary steps. It is almost meaningless to mention about huge quantities of Paneer and khoa being sold which are made out of palm oil and plant based derivatives.

Nobody gave heed to our shouts last year

During the same time last year we were telling everyone that the stocks of SMP and ghee were enough and season was not favourable for summer specific products like ice cream, dahi, flavored milk and buttermilk , etc. We also got worried about the profitability of Indian dairy sector and shared a blog in July 2019 on "Dairy sector Show me the money"..

Finally we made our point around Diwali 2023 with the blog linked to dairy commodities status in India