Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited

Anand Milk Union Limited (AMUL) is an Indian dairy state government cooperative society, based in Anand, Gujarat.
Formed in 1946, it is a cooperative brand managed by Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today is controlled jointly by 36 lakh milk producers in Gujarat and the apex body of 13 district milk unions, spread across 13,500+ villages of Gujarat.
Amul spurred India's White Revolution, which made the country the world's largest producer of milk and milk products.

Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel under the guidance of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel became the founding chairman of the organization and led it until his retirement in the 70s. He hired Verghese Kurien in 1949 and convinced him to stay and help with the mission. Under the chairmanship of Tribhuvandas, Kurien was initially the general manager and helped guide the technical and marketing efforts of Amul. Kurien was the chairman of Amul briefly after Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel died in 1994. Kurien, founder-chairman of the GCMMF for more than 30 years (1973–2006), is credited with the success of Amul's marketing.

Amul has ventured into overseas markets.

Technological breakthrough

In 1955, his keen technological knowledge and engineering capabilities resulted in the installation of the "Niro Atomiser", the world's first buffalo milk spray-dryer, at Amul Dairy in Gujrat.

Harichand Megha Dalaya was the silent force behind the success of Amul. While Tribhuvandas Kishibai Patel is regarded as its "father" and Verghese Kurien as its "son", H. M. Dalaya is considered its "holy ghost" whose contribution changed the future of Indian dairy farming.

History

Amul cooperative was registered on 19 December 1946, as a response to the exploitation of marginal milk producers by traders and agents in small cities. The prices of milk were arbitrarily determined at the time. The government had given Polson an effective monopoly in milk collection from Kaira and its subsequent supply to Mumbai.

Angered by the unfair trade practices, the farmers of Kaira approached Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel under the leadership of local farmer leader Tribhuvandas K. Patel. He advised them to form a cooperative (Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union) and supply milk directly to the Bombay Milk Scheme instead of Polson (who did the same but gave them low prices). He sent Morarji Desai to organize the farmers. In 1946, the milk farmers of the area went on a strike which led to the setting up of a cooperative to collect and process milk. Milk collection was decentralized, as most producers were marginal farmers who could deliver, at most, 1–2 liters of milk per day. Cooperatives were formed for each village, too. By June 1948, the KDCMPUL had started pasteurizing milk for the ''Bombay Milk Scheme''. Then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri visited Anand to inaugurate Amul's cattle feed factory. On 31 October 1964, and organization in the village and spoke to farmers about their cooperative after returning to Delhi, he set in motion the creation of an organization, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), to replicate the Kaira cooperative in other parts of India. Under the leadership of Tribhuvandas Patel, in 1973, Amul celebrated its 25th Anniversary with Morarji Desai, Maniben Patel, and Verghese Kurien.

Under the leadership of Tribhuvandas Patel, the cooperative was further developed through the efforts of Verghese Kurien and H. M. Dalaya. Dalaya's innovation of making skim milk powder from buffalo milk was a technological breakthrough that revolutionized India's organized dairy industry.

With Kurien's help, the process was expanded on a commercial scale which led to the first modern dairy cooperative at Anand. This cooperative would go on to compete against established players in the market.

The trio's ( T. K. Patel, Kurien, and Dalaya's) success at the cooperative's dairy soon spread to Anand's neighborhood in Gujarat. Within a short span, five unions in other districts – Mehsana, Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha, and Surat – were set up, following the approach sometimes described as the Anand pattern.

In 1970, it spearheaded the "White Revolution" of India. To combine forces and expand the market while saving on advertising and avoiding competing against each other, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., an apex marketing body of these district cooperatives, was set up in 1973. The Kaira Union, which had the brand name Amul with it since 1955, transferred it to GCMMF.

In 1999, it was awarded the "''Best of all''" Rajiv Gandhi National Quality Award.

Technological developments at Amul have subsequently spread to other parts of India.

The GCMMF is the largest food products marketing organization in India. It is the apex organization of the dairy cooperatives of Gujarat. It is the exclusive marketing organization for products under the brand name Amul and Sagar.
Over the last five and a half decades, dairy cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 3.1 million (3.1  million) village milk products with crores of consumers in India. In 2007, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd crossed US$1 billion in its sales turnover and entered the elite club of food companies having this distinction from India. In one more major achievement, the dairy cooperatives of Gujarat under the GCMMF fold crossed milk procurement of 10 million kgs. per day mark on 27 December 2007, which is the highest ever milk procurement achieved by any dairy network in India, be it private or cooperative. The entire quantity of milk received was accepted without any milk holidays and was processed successfully into milk and other milk products.

On 30 September 2018, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Amul's chocolate plant in Mogar, Anand near their headquarters. The new plant has been built with an increased capacity of 1,000 tonnes per month against the earlier 250 tonnes a month capacity. GCMMF has invested around ₹3 billion in this project. It is a fully automated production factory with minimal human intervention.

UHT products and impact

Over the years, Amul has been witnessing growth in this portfolio, with the segment growing at 53%. Long-life UHT products for urban populations, like Amul Taaza, which are packed in Tetra Pak cartons undergo UHT treatment to remove all harmful micro-organisms while retaining the nutrition in the milk. Amul sells around – liters of UHT milk and other value-added products per day and forecasts this demand to continue growing at 25%. The UHT products have enabled Amul to position itself as the market leader in packaged milk segment without the need of maintaining cold supply chains.

Advertising

In 1966, Amul hired Sylvester da Cunha, the managing director of an advertising agency as to design an ad campaign for Amul Butter. DaCunha designed a campaign as a series of hoardings with topical ads, relating to day-to-day issues. It was popular and earned a Guinness World Record for the longest-running ad campaign in the world. In the 1980s, cartoon artist Kumar Morey and scriptwriter Bharat Dabholkar had been involved in sketching the Amul ads; the latter rejected the trend of using celebrities in advertisement campaigns. Dabholkar credited chairman Verghese Kurien with creating a free atmosphere that fostered the development of the ads.

Despite encountering political pressure on several occasions, DaCunha's agency has made it a policy of not backing down. Some of the more controversial Amul ads include one commenting on the Naxalite uprising in West Bengal, on the Indian Airlines employees' strike, and one depicting the Amul girl wearing a Gandhi cap.

In 2013, Amul tweeted a picture featuring the Amul butter girl, implying that "freedom of choice" died in 2013, in opposition to the Supreme Court of India overruling the judgment of the Delhi High Court and criminalizing homosexuality again.

On 17 October 2016, Amul butter girl celebrated 50 years since she first appeared in the topical ad, titled "Thoroughbread". The ad showed a jockey holding a slice of bread during the horse race season in 1966. The impish Amul girl had appeared for the first time even before that, with Eustace Fernandez showing her offering bedtime prayers with a wink and a lick of lips, saying "Give us this day our daily bread: with Amul butter".

Their Ad on ''Aagey Badhta Hai India'' had an excellent response from the audience. It spoke about how their Milk is seen as a household product with a catchy tune associated with it. It has over 39 lakh (~4 million) views on YouTube.

In February 2020, Amul posted a picture of the Amul girl treating Joaquin Phoenix with butter after his academy award win for his role in the 2019 film, Joker. Since Phoenix is a vegan, Amul faced criticism from vegans in India and PETA for the poor knowledge of his vegan activism and life.

Amul posted a picture of its mascot Butter Girl celebrating with PV Sindhu for winning the bronze medal in the Tokyo Olympics in August 2021.

In popular culture

The establishment of Amul is known as the White Revolution.

The White Revolution inspired the notable Indian filmmaker Shyam Benegal to base his film ''Manthan'' (1976) on it. The film was financed by over five lakh (half a million) rural farmers in Gujarat who contributed ₹2 each to its budget. Upon its release, these farmers went in truckloads to watch 'their' film, making it a commercial success. ''Manthan'' won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi during the 24th National Film Awards
in 1977.

Recognition

In August 2019, Amul became the first Indian dairy company to enter Rabobank's Global Top 20 Dairy Companies list.

See also

* Aavin is a statutory corporation and the trademark of Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers' Federation Limited. Aavin procures milk, processes it, and sells milk and milk products to consumers.
* Anikspray is a competitive brand developed by Lipton and HLL, and later sold to other companies.

References

External links

* {{Official

Cooperatives in Gujarat
Food and drink companies established in 1946
Companies based in Gujarat
Ice cream brands
Economy of Gujarat
Dairy products companies of India
Indian brands
Indian companies established in 1946
Dairy cooperatives in India
Brand name dairy products
Dairy farming in India
Agricultural cooperatives in India