An Indian Dairy Cooperative
Head quarter: Anand , Gujrat, India.
Key people
:Chairman, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF)
Founded
1946
The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Ltd.
was registered on 1 December 1946 as a response to the exploitation of
marginal milk producers by traders or agents of the only existing dairy,
the Polson (brand) dairy, in the small town of
Anand (in Kaira District of Gujarat).
Milk producers had to travel long distances to deliver milk, which often went sour in summer, to Polson.Moreover, the government at
that time had given monopoly rights to Polson to collect milk from Anand
and supply it to Bombay city.
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 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 organise the farmers. In 1946, the milk farmers of the area went on a
strike which led to the setting up of the cooperative to collect and
process milk.
Milk collection was decentralized, as most producers were marginal
farmers who could deliver atmost 1–2 litres of milk per day.
Cooperatives were formed for each village too.
The Cooperative was further developed and managed by Dr.Verghese Kurien along with H.M. Dalaya.
Dalaya's innovation of making skim milk powder from buffalo milk for
the first time anywhere in the world and a little later, along with
Kurien's help, making it on a commercial scale,
led to the first modern dairy of the cooperative at Anand, which would 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 neighbourhood in Gujarat, and
within a short span, five unions in other districts – Mehsana,
Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha and Surat were set up.
In order to combine forces and expand the market while saving on
advertising and avoid competing against each other, the GCMMF, an apex
marketing body of these district cooperatives was set up in 1973. The
Kaira Union which had the brand name of
Amul with it since 1955, transferred it to GCMMF.
