38th Annual General Body Meeting held on 31st May 2012

38^th Annual General Body Meeting held on 31st May, 2012

Madam and Gentlemen,

On 26th November, 2011, we celebrated the 90th birthday of DrVergheseKurien. I vividly recall that in the year 1999, while addressing the Board of GCMMF, DrKurien had said, "We have traversed a path that few have dared to. We are continuing on the path that still fewer have courage to follow. We must pursue a path that even fewer can dream to pursue". Today, we are on the same path, where even fewer will dream to pursue. Our Federation this year handled a peak of 14.5 million litres of milk per day. We continue to push ourselves towards excellence in milk production and serving our producers and consumers. As one of the top milk processors of the world, we at GCMMF have taken up the challenge to make milk available at every corner of the country. In line with the same, we have planned an expansion to increase our processing capacity to 18 million litres a day by 2018, to take care of the future demands.

Our commitment of making milk available to every corner of the country comes from the fact that milk is the source of complete nutrition. Its indispensability for all people, rural or urban, poor or rich, cannot be contested. It not only suits the taste buds of most of us, but also offers a balanced diet with every essential nutrient in required proportion. As our age progresses, the most frequent problems that we come across are declining bone density and deteriorating digestive system. Milk comes as an elixir for these problems. Hence, while consumption of milk is critical to infants, it is imperative to maintain good health of adults too. It is basically the best fuel for life, and the world's original energy drink. With this idea, we promote Indian Olympic contingent for London Olympic 2012 and wish our team the very best.

Fortunately, with the replication of Anand pattern under the white revolution, we have been able to make this natural energy drink available to more and more people of India. Currently, per capita availability of milk in India is 280 ml per day which is higher than the WHO's minimum recommendation. But this is just an average figure. We actually need to ensure that it is available to every single person in the true sense and not in average terms. With increasing population and income, the demand for milk is going to rise multifold in coming future. It is high time that we start working on our milk production as well as productivity to meet the coming demand.

As per the NCAER report, the middle class or consuming class has been growing in the country and by 2015 is expected to form 54% of the population as compared to 26% in 2003. With the increasing affluence, a new set of consumers who are willing to indulge and experiment with their taste buds, are emerging. This is in line with a global survey on changing food consumption habits that highlights people are increasingly looking for convenience and premiumisation in food products.

The same can also be inferred from the recent foray of large multinationals in these categories. A study by Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion has shown that in the past, foreign investments have increasingly been coming in the Food Processing Industry and these players have been targeting the new growth segments in order to establish their hold. We have to prepare ourselves to face them.

Also, with increasing female work force participation and reducing time in today's busy life, the out-of home consumption has increased. However, people still don't want to compromise on health and wellness. This opens up new opportunities for ready milk based products that are nutritive and at the same time filling. This is proven by the fact that the food categories that lead in India by growth are Ice creams and Cheese.

India, like the United Kingdom, is a nation of shopkeepers. Retailing has been contributing significantly to India's GDP; however penetration of organised retail has been low. This is however now changing with slow but steady growth in modern trade over the last 5 years which is expected to become two - fold in the next 5 years.

While foreign direct investments boost many sectors with new employment opportunities and increased development, it may be a double edged sword in retail. Government of India had recently proposed to permit up to 51% FDI in retail and 100% FDI in single brand retail. This certainly does not augur well for milk producers. We must be aware that milk producers get least returns from modern trade in most of the developed countries. The efficiency of these stores benefits only the retailers as they seek more profits. Farmers in USA and UK get only 38% and 36% share of consumers' money spent on milk respectively as per the International Farm Comparison Network data. In last 15 years, this share of milk producers has declined from 52% to 38% in USA and from 56% to 36% in UK. As compared to that, the Indian milk producers get more than 70% on an average and the milk producers affiliated to co-operatives get more than 80% share of consumers' rupee. Key question is whether the Organised retail trade would beable to operate at low margins as practised by GCMMF and other Co-operatives, failing which, they would not be able to maintain the farmer's share in consumer price.

GCMMF has experience of dealing with several large retailers of the world. What we have experienced is that organised retail trade tends to be monopolistic. There is heavy burden on manufacturer and marketer in terms of squeezed margin, long credit period and arbitrary marketing expense. For instance, organised retail chains demand heavy discounts and rebates. In summary, the large retailers will effectively kill innovation, squeeze margins and always threaten the brands with cheaper substitutes, imports or finallyin-store brands.

In past one decade, the small retailer category of general trade in India that employs 32% of the Indian population, has improved their retail outlets, presentation, service levels and customer orientation significantly in response to the changing environment. However, the modern retails and their deep pocket due to foreign investment will destabilise theretail trade which gainfully employs a very large section of society. Furthermore, closure of small stores and opening of large retail chains displace just as many jobs as they create friendly. For instance, it also affects community revenue by shifting away the money from the community. Local business use local resourcesand in turn pay for it resulting in improving community health, which is not the case for large chainsas they have got everything centralised, right from interior decor to product procurement.

Liberal FDI policies in retail would not benefit Government's share of taxes as they would remain same irrespective of the format of retail. However, there has been practice of demanding moreand more concessions and liberal policies fromGovernment by the foreign organised retails. Furthermore, labour policies of large retailers have not been employee-friendly for instance; some of the large retailers are often accused of below minimum wages,poor working conditions, unfavourable employer-employee relationships and anti-union policies. In ourview, if largest and most reputed Indian corporate houses have invested in retailing in India, wedo not need to look to foreign investors to invest in Indian retail.

Someone beautifully said that when you buy from small shops, you are not helping a MNC CEO buy a third vacation home, but helping a little girl get school education, a little boy get his cricket bat, a mom put food on the table or a family repay a housing loan. It is this India that we need to believe in and care for.
I now present to you, our Federation's Annual Report and Audited Accounts for the year 2011-2012.

Review of Operations

MILK PROCUREMENT
Total milk procurement by our Member Unions in Gujarat during the year 2011-12 averaged 100.30 lakh kg (10.30 million kg) per day, representing growth of 6.09 per cent over 94.54 lakh kg (9.45 million kg) per day achieved during 2010-11. Shifting from existing trend, the highest procurement was recorded during February month of 2012 at 130 lakh kg(13.0 million kg) per day, which historically used to be in January month. Furthermore, our Member Unions have started procuring milk from states other than Gujarat. This year, we have procured an average of 8.95 lakh kg (0.89 million kg) per day from states outside Gujarat, taking our total milk procurement to an average of 109.25 lakh kg (10.9 million kg) per day. We have demonstrated our ability to process more than 14.5 million litres of milk per day almost for the entire month of February. We have been able to win back farmers' interest in milk production by providing attractive prices for milk, which we have raised by 58% in last three years. This has resulted in high level of procurement both in Gujarat and in other states. We have also been working very extensively on productivity per animal since very long which is contributing in increased milk procurement.

SALES
During the year, sales of our Federation registered an impressive growth of 19.3% to reach Rs.11,668 crores (Rs.116.68 billion). Last year, our turnover was Rs.9,774 crores (Rs.97.74 billion). This is an impressive growth, considering the shortage of milk we faced in the beginning two quarters of the year and that GCMMF has recorded a consistent 20% of growth rate for last five years. I am also pleased to note that our Federation has done remarkably well in most of our value-added consumer packs. Amul Milk in pouches has shown an impressive value growth of 29%. Sale of AmulDahi and Amul Buttermilk have grown by remarkable 41% and 27% respectively in value terms. Our sales in Amul Cheese have shown consistent and very impressive growth of 23%. Our dairy whitener, Amulya too has shown growth of 26% over previous year sales.

With enhanced focus on new product development, we launched frozen yoghurt under the brand name of AmulFlaavyo. In addition to taking nutrition through milk to our consumers, we have launched our new malt based beverage, Amul PRO, which contains whey based proteins, DHA and other essential nutrients for proper development of mind and body. Innovation and continuous development has been our mantra. We have introduced some of our products in new contemporary pack designs - AmulMithaimate sweetened condensed milk, Amul Lite Bread Spread and Amul Processed Cheese. Keeping developing consumer trends in mind, we also launched gift packs in AmulFlavoured Milk Cans, Gulabjamun, Chocolates, Cheese and Ice cream under the sub brands of Utsav and Rejoice. Amul Ice cream has shown a growth of 12.4% in value terms over the last year. At the same time we have maintained our position of No. 1Ice cream brand in India leaving a wide gap with the nearest competitor.

RETAILING
Retailing business at GCMMF Ltd. has received a fillip during the last financial year. Amul Exclusive parlours have reached to total tally of 6,315 which is almost 20% higher than the previous year's number of 5,350. The rate of growth has improved over the previous financial year wherein 965 Parlours were added at an average of approximately 3 outlets per day. Revenue from the retailing business has witnessed an encouraging growth with an annual turnover of `460 crores. The average throughput per APO is also steady and growing.

The highlight of the retailing business has been the introduction of the casual dine-in format "Cafe Amul". The Cafe Amul concept is expected to witness further firming up during the coming year wherein we intend to add another 10 Cafes. We have also received allotment of milk stalls at important railway stations to take the total count of Amul milk stalls to 170 at Railway Stations. Amul milk stalls in this segment not only come as an excellent revenue source but also provide top-class services to the travelling consumers.

We have also made a strong headway in Ice cream parlours and now boast of India's largest chain of Ice cream parlours with a total tally of 600. We have been continuously developing new ways and new recipes to give a rich brand experience to our discerning consumers. We shall continue to focus on our retailing initiative and would be aiming to take the total tally of Amul exclusive outlets to 10,000 by end of the year.

EXPORT
I am happy to inform you that we had registered sale of `95 crores in exports of milk products. There is a growth of 15% in consumer packs. Government of India had banned export of milk powder since February, 2011 and the ban is still continued. Due to this we were not able to export milk powders.

However, as you know, our focus had always remained on selling consumer products which helps us in increasing our sales irrespective of world dairy product prices. Thus, in spite of ban on exports of milk powders, we could get the benefit of faith of our loyal and trusted consumers across the globe. We will continue building on this strong base of customers in the coming year too.

DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
Improvement in both width and depth of distribution across urban and rural India continues to be the key focus in Federation. The unique combination of ambient, chilled, frozen and fresh distribution highways has always been our huge competitive advantage. Channel partners associated with us for decades have been our major strength. During the year, 750 distributors, both for value-added dairy products and fresh milk have joined in our network. Now, we have more than 7,000 distributors relentlessly servicing more than a million retail outlets from dawn to dusk.

Last year we rolled out Hub-n-Spoke model of distribution to explore the huge potential markets of small towns and rural areas. We added more than 150 super distributors and established our reach in more than 2,500 small towns overcoming the challenges posed by inadequate cold chain facilities. Phenomenal success of this distribution approach in terms of generating sales volume has made it imperative that we continue this model to reach fast to still untapped markets of small towns and rural areas.

Storage and transportation processes are amongst few key focus areas in Federation. Be it discipline in schedule of transporting stocks to distributors or optimal utilisation of available storage space, no stone was left unturned to ensure these initiatives. This has not only added efficiency in supply chain but also improved cost effectiveness of distribution channel, which is imperative in a competitive environment.

To get exposure to our network of co-operative institutions, we organiseAmulYatra for our channel partners. So far, about 8,500 channel partners have got exposed to our co-operative institutions.

CO-OPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
GCMMF family welcomes two new Milk Unions namely Amreli District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited and Bhavnagar District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Limited as ordinary members. We now have 15 ordinary members of GCMMF,a significant landmark in our 38 year journey starting with 6 Member Unions.

During the year we continued to support milk producers of Junagadh and Kutch districts to organise theirco-operative societies at village level. Milk producers have organised 794 village dairy co-operative societies and their district milk unions have become nominal members of GCMMF.
During the last twelve years, our Member Unions are implementing internal consultant development (ICD) intervention for developing self leadership among member producers and thereby enabling them to manage their dairy business efficiently leading to their overall development. Under ICD, facilitated by specially trained consultants, 555 village dairy co-operative societies have conducted their Vision Mission Strategy (VMS) workshops, prepared their mission statements and business plans for next five years. Till date, 7,662 village societies have prepared their mission statement and business plans under the initiative.
Inspired by the success of VMS at VDCS level, Member Unions have planned to upscale it. Thrust areas of VMS have been planned to improve infrastructure and animal husbandry activities at milk producer level.
In order to strengthen knowledge and skill base of young girls and women of the villages about milk production management, our Federation with technical collaboration and resources of Anand Agriculture University, has initiated "MahilaPashupalanTalimKaryakram" for women resource persons of the Member Unions and during the year, 486 women resource person have been trained under this programme.

Clean Milk Production
Under our quality assurance programme for consumers, GCMMF has supported the Member Unions for strengthening infrastructure for quality and clean milk production by implementing various Government of India, Government of Gujarat and NCDC programmes. Our Member Unions have identified 4,000 potential village societies for installation of bulk milk coolers (BMC) and till date, 3,390 BMC have already been installed and also implemented CMP training programme in these villages. Continuing the cleanliness drive at village level, till March 2012, Member Unions have implemented cleanliness module at 9,624 village societies. To enhance the level of cleanliness this year 8,332 VDCS (Village Dairy Co-operative Society) celebrated red tag day on "Gandhi Jayanti" - 2nd October and the Unions also gave awards to the best performing VDCS.

Fertility Improvement Programme
Considering a long term vision to reduce infertile animal from their milk unions; our Board had decided to implement Fertility Improvement Programme (FIP) from the year 2007-08. During the last five years, they have implemented FIP in 4,860 village societies, and registered 3.48 lakh non-productive animals under FIP and out of this, 2.15 lakh milch animals have been made productive.

Milk Productivity Enhancement
Our Board has envisioned integrated intervention to achieve the objective of higher production and productivity in milk. To develop genetically superior animals with high milk productivity, it has been decided to implement pure breeding programme with 100% pure bull semen. In cow, pure breeding shall be implemented in Gir and Kankrej and in buffalo pure breeding shall be implemented in Mehsani, Jafrabadi and Murrah. Non-descript and crossbred cowshall be upgraded to 100% Gujarat HF and 100% Gujarat Jersey.

To create good replacement stock and to include scientific calf rearing practices amongst farmers, our Board has envisaged implementing calf Rearing programme in which we plan to cover 48,000 calves in the initial phase.
One of the difficulties in milk production is wide fluctuation in feed and fodder prices and its availability, which has been causing landless, marginal and small farmers' reluctance towards milk production. With objectives of providing scientifically developed balanced mixed ration to animals, our Board has envisioned implementing total mixed ration programme. This programme would help milk producers to maintain their animals economically and improve animal health, fertility, productivity and have more milk production.

Sustainable ecological development
'Green Amul Green India' Campaign Dairy farming, like agriculture is dependent on nature, drawing resource from the nature and hence requiring nature's support for its growth and development. Over the years, due to intensive agriculture and deforestation, various natural resources have been depleted in Gujarat. To counter this we started a programme through which our milk producers were encouraged to plant trees in their vicinity. Every year, on Independence day, all our milk producers' plant saplings of trees, to protect mother earth from pollution, climate change and global warming.

During last five years, our members have planted more than 312 lakh trees and demonstrated their commitment towards preserving and contributing to improvement of the environment. For this activity, we have received five consecutive Good Green Governance award from Srishti during 2007 to 2011.

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY INTEGRATION
We have successfully completed SAP ERP Application implementation across the enterprise enabling it to achieve better supply chain performance. The system helps improve planning and monitoring across the enterprise. We have also developed animal productivity process systems in order to help animal productivity improvement and its tracking effectively. Our Federation has also enhanced its MPLS-based Virtual Private Network(VPN) Connectivity at all its sales offices, member unions, milk plants, milk chilling centres and warehouses on a common communication backbone to strengthen and automate the supply chain operations.

STRIDE TOWARDS EXCELLENCE
At GCMMF, it is our constant endeavour to surpass our previous performance and achieve greater heights as we continue to serve our producers and consumers. This year, we are very proud to have received the Economic Times Corporate Citizen Award from Times Group for our contribution in socio-economic development of rural India. It is also my pleasure to inform that this year we have risen to 18th position among the milk processors of world as per IFCN ranking from 21st rank last year and are poised to break in to league of top 15 by the end of this year.

During the year we have also won the "Green Globe Foundation Award" at the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2012 for our mass tree plantation drive and contribution to environment by the milk producers of Gujarat. Taking further our excellence in sales and marketing, we were honoured with IDF Dairy Innovation Award 2011 in best new dairy drink for Amul Prolife Lassee and in best TV campaign category for Amul Master Chef.

THE ROAD AHEAD
India continues to be the largest milk producing nation, with production of 122 million MT in 2011-12. This is about 16% of world milk production. Most of this production is consumed domestically, yet at times, supplies are unable to match demand. This has been putting pressure on milk prices as the deficit has to be met through costly occasional imports of milk and milk products. To avoid this there is a need to increase milk production in the country. Also, substantial part of the increased production needs to be converted to value-added products, to reduce dependence on occasional imports. This would also modernise the country's dairy sector. Currently, milk processing industry is growing in India and about one third of dairy sector is organised. Co-operatives form 60% of the organised sector. However, share of private players has been continuously increasing. This may be an alarming trend for farmers as well as consumers as private sector is known to capture profits and not serve both producers' and consumers' interests.

Economic contribution of live-stock surpassed that of food grains in 2002-03 and has since remained about 5-10% higher as per scientists at NCAER. Its contribution to total agricultural output has increased from 15% in 1981-82 to 26% in 2010-11. Despite this, it still receives only 12% of total public expenditure on agriculture. Of late, growth of this sector is stifled by absence of policy focus. India's livestock productivity is 20-60% lower than global average, depending upon the breed of cattle, mainly due to deficiency of feed and fodder. Area under cultivation of green fodder has been decreasing as farmers shift to more profitable cash crops. This has led to doubling of fodder prices. Besides that, improvement in wages due to NREGA and increasing industrialisation which is leading to migration of people have resulted in lack of interest of people in taking up dairying. To avoid this drifting away from dairying, we need to ensure proper prices to farmers. This is another reason for increasing milk prices.

Also, it is well discernable from Planning Commission Report 2011, that it is the small and marginal farmers who are more dependent on livestock for income. Wherever contribution of livestock to farm income is higher, it has been observed that poverty and deprivation is lesser.

Thus, to meet the growing demand and keep prices affordable for consumers as well as increase returns for farmers, it is important to improve productivity and production of milk in the country. I am pleased to note that with the National Dairy Plan (NDP), the government is attempting to do the same. Also this would increase contribution of co-operatives in marketable milk surplus compared to private players thus strengthening our rural economy and the livelihood of our farmers.

The NDP is expected to double our production in 15 years. It also aims to grow the organised sector to handle 65% of the marketable milk surplus, from current level of 30%, by 2021-22, thus introducing transparency and minimizing malpractices like adulteration in the system.

I have already mentioned how agriculture and dairying goes hand-in-hand. However, the agriculture income is exempted from Income tax whereas income earned by farmers from supply of milk is taxable. In fact, the income from supply of milk helps small and marginal farmers to survive at the time of crop failure. Further, various expenditure on fertiliser, water, etc. is incurred with the help of income earned from supply of milk. Thus, income from milk also helps agriculture sector to grow and meet the demand of ever increasing population. Considering dairy as a part of agriculture and exempting it from income tax, would incentivise the farmer for milk production. We have made representations to the Hon. Prime Minister, Union Ministers for Finance and Agriculture on this.

Milk co-operatives are primarily engaged in eradication of rural poverty and economic development of farmers in the country. Milk co-operatives are currently taxed in the highest bracket of 30% + 3% education and higher education cess. Thus, we feel that co-operative organisations like GCMMF and other state dairy federations who undertake commercial operations on behalf of millions of milk producers of India, who are primarily in the agriculture sector, should be taxed at lower rates than corporate. Taxing is important as this way co-operatives contribute to the development of the country by way of paying income tax. However, about 15 years ago, tax on the co-operatives was lower than the corporate rates and this difference should be maintained now as well. Further, milk co-operatives are involved in rural development programmes by spending the money for improvements in productivity and on health of milch animals. Reduction of taxes considering the social and economicalmission of milk co-operatives would help milkco-operatives to improve their services to both producers and consumers.

Dairy co-operatives provide products of mass consumption like milk, baby food, dairy whitener, butter, ghee, ice cream, etc. at very reasonable rates to the consumers of India. This has made such products affordable for the common man to include them in his daily consumption. In the interest of consumers from all sections of society, VAT rates applicable to dairy products like baby food powder, butter, ghee, cheese, ice cream need to be reduced from 12.5% to 4%, so as to increase consumer demand, boost milk products and improve consumers' health by way of better nutrition. It will also improve rural milk producers' income and result in overall socio-economic development in rural areas.

We applaud Government's move to implement 111th Constitutional Amendment to insulate about six lakh co-operative societies from political and government interference and to strengthen the co-operative movement.

When we plan to improve productivity as well as production, we also need to keep in mind the markets where such huge quantity of milk will be consumed. We need to explore new opportunities and markets. India has graduated from milk deficit country to largest milk producer in world. However, our exports of milk and milk products still remain insignificant in comparison to the existing players. We have been following the policy of not exporting milk powders to foreign countries so that availability in our country does not get hampered.

We are expecting 127 million MT production of milk this year, which is likely to reach 180 million MT by 2020. A substantial portion of milk produced is converted into powders to be used in production of milk products during dry season. Since, we have already started receiving good quantity of milk, which is expected to continue, the stocks of milk powders are poised to rise higher. High stocks of powder would result in falling price of raw milk as well as milk powder which is happening currently. This will cause decline in the procurement price available to farmers, and would be detrimental to the farmers' motivation in milk production. Opening of export markets would not only serve as outlet for excess of milk produced over the domestic requirements but also will keep the domestic prices stable. We strongly feel that branded milk powders in consumer packs should never be banned. Thus, now when we plan to produce such large quantity of milk, it is imperative to relook at our export policies.

Besides export, we need to cater to the changing consumption pattern of milk in India itself. Milk forms part of the basic food basket and with increasing number of middle class families in India; milk consumption is on the rise in the country. This creates a significant need for making more and more of pure and unadulterated milk available to satisfy growing consumer demand.

With increased milk production, we hope to be able to expand our reach further to every part of the country. Over the past year we have been able to expand distribution to cover around 10 lakh retail outlets. This expansion is necessary so as to create a competitive environment in the new markets that would offer customers with vital choice of products.

Apart from new geographical markets, we are also looking at expanding our presence in new product lines such as gourmet cheese, yoghurt and pro-biotic products. Amul has always been selling products that cater to consumers from the lowest strata to the top of the pyramid which has been giving us a competitive edge over other players. I assure you that we will continue to pursue the above path with dedication and commitment.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Before closing, I would like to thank all those who have helped to make our Federation's operations successful.

We are grateful to the Government of India for immense support received from various departments and specifically from the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development. We convey our special thanks to NCDC for providing valuable support to our village co-operative dairy societies. We are also thankful to the Government of Gujarat for all the help and co-operation, extended to our organisation. National Co-operative Dairy Federation of India has been providing us with invaluablesupport in coordination with other agencies and organisations. National Dairy Development Board has played a role in our growth and development. I am very grateful to them.

Institute of Rural Management, Anand, as always, has contributed to the perspective building and professionalisation of the management of co-operative sector. We express deep gratitude for its support.

We are indebted to Vidya Dairy for having organised training programmes on dairy technology for our employees. We are also grateful to SMC College of Dairy Science, Anand, for strengthening the dairy co-operative sector, by providing technically skilled manpower. We express our sincere thanks to the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Anand.

Our advertising agencies, bankers, insurers, management consultants, technology partners, suppliers and transport contractors have been of great help to us in managing our growth and are our partners in success. We acknowledge their contributions and commit ourselves to continue and strengthen this fruitful alliance in all times to come.

The Indian Railways has played a crucial role in the growth of our dairy co-operatives since inception. We thank them for their continuous support.

We depend on the efficiency of our WC&F agents, distributors, retailers and most important of all, the patronage of our consumers, who have come to regard our brands as synonymous with quality and value. While thanking them for their support, we assure them that we shall strive endlessly to delight them.

Our Member Unions are our strength. We thank them for their guidance, support and co-operation without which we would not exist.
Lastly, we thank the officers and staff of our Federation for their continued perseverance, loyalty and unflinching efforts devoted to our cause.

Thank you.
For and on behalf of the Board of Directors

P G Bhatol
Chairman

38th Annual General Body Meeting held on 31st May 2012