44th Annual General Body Meeting held on 23rd June 2018

44^th Annual General Body Meeting held on 23^rd June 2018

Madam and Gentlemen,

The “Father of Our Nation”, Mahatma Gandhi, hailed the Indian farmer as ‘father of the world, who in his true greatness, is not even aware of this fact’. The Mahatma further proclaimed that “real India lives in its farmers’ huts”, a fact which is relevant even today, with 70% of our population residing in rural India and a vast majority still dependent on agriculture for its livelihood. Within rural India, 64% of the total workforce is engaged in the agricultural sector, which contributes 39% of the total rural net domestic product. Therefore, in order to generate a positive interest as well as create a transformational impact on a vast majority of our fellow citizens towards genuinely contributing to nation-building, it is essential to look at how we can transform rural India.

In the words of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, the ‘Iron Man of India’, “If farmers of India are unhappy, the nation as a whole can never be happy.” Everyone would agree that the low level of absolute income, as well as the large and increasing disparity between the income of a farmer and a non-agricultural worker is an important reason for the agrarian distress in the country. Losses from farming, volatile shocks in farm income, and low farm income are identified as the chief causal factors for farmers’ suicides in India. The low and highly fluctuating farm income is causing an adverse impact on the interest in agriculture among the younger generation of farmers, forcing many to leave this occupation. This may lead to serious detrimental effects on the future of agriculture in India.

There is a need to think beyond ‘food security’ of the country and focus on ‘income security’ of the farmer as well. Hence, the goal set by our Hon. Prime Minister to double farmers’ income by 2022-23 will help to promote farmers’ welfare, reduce agrarian distress, and reduce disparity between income of farmers and those working in non-agricultural professions. Achieving this goal will promote inclusive growth, infuse dynamism in the agriculture sector and also attract youth towards the farming profession.

More than one-fifth of rural households with self-employment in agriculture as their principal occupation still live below the poverty line. The most effective means of enhancing farmers’ income is by enhancing the real prices received by farmers for their produce by improving market access, thereby reducing the long chain of middlemen in the supply chain. Other parallel measures are also required, such as enhancement in productivity, leveraging on technology and awareness on scientific farm management practices, resource-use efficiency enabling savings in cost of production, diversification towards higher value agricultural produce, increasing cropping intensity, and broadening livelihood options in rural environment by shifting cultivators from crop-cultivation to non-cultivation occupations. Institutional mechanisms for collective action such as Cooperatives or Farmer Producer Organisations which can enable pooling of resources, group marketing, and post-harvest value addition, would go a long way towards ensuring that farmers derive benefits of scale through large collective alliances.

There is definitely an over-dependence of workforce on crop cultivation resulting in significant under-employment. Indian agriculture is dominated by marginal and small farmers, who suffer serious disadvantage in terms of scale. Tiny landholdings are not economically viable on their own because of their scale factor, poor bargaining strength, and lack of access to market. Small land holdings compel the farmer to use traditional methods of farming and limit productivity. A farm household needs to have at least one hectare of land to make ends meet every month. However, 80% of rural households in India have less than one hectare of land. This means that four out of five farm households are simply not able to make ends meet through crop cultivation alone.

Around 60% of the total income of an agricultural household is derived from farm activities and 40% derived from non-farm sources. Of the 60% contributed by farm activities, 48% comes from crop cultivation and the balance 12% from livestock. Growth in income from cultivation has been only 3.7% in the last decade. The growth in income from livestock has been much faster at 14.3%. Doubling real income of farmers till 2022-23 over the base year of 2015-16 when our Prime Minister announced this goal requires an annual growth of 10.4% in farmers’ income over the seven-year period. This requires a sharp acceleration in the previously achieved growth rates. It is obvious that livestock at 14.3% growth rate shows much more promise in helping to attain that goal.

The lowest landholding class in rural India earned 1% of its income from crop cultivation while the largest earned 86% of its total income from it. Livestock contributed to 36% of the total income for the lowest land class and 7% to the highest land class. This lowest land class comprises 80% of the rural Indian households who can be categorized as marginal farmers or landless agricultural labourers. To enhance their income, there is an urgent need to put special attention towards the growth of the livestock sector. Unleashing the full potential of the livestock sector is one of the key measures of doubling farmers’ income by 2022.

Livestock is the lifeline of the farmers and plays a crucial role in the rural economy and livelihood. It provides livelihood to two-third of the rural community and contributes 4.5% of GDP and 26% of the total Agriculture GDP. The increasing contribution of livestock is hinting towards a structural shift in the agricultural sector in the country. The policymakers are now recognizing livestock as the engine of agriculture growth.

Research studies have reported reduction in rural poverty being more responsive to growth in the livestock sector than growth in the crop sector. Evidence from other developing countries also suggests that livestock can serve as an important pathway to poverty reduction. Animal husbandry can be an entry point for reducing poverty among landless and near landless households. Livestock are the best insurance against the vagaries of nature like drought, famine, and other natural calamities. They supplement family income and generate gainful self-employment, particularly for landless labourers, small and marginal farmers, and women.

Within livestock, the dairy sector is the most significant and is truly the economic backbone of rural India. India is the global leader in milk production and also the largest and fastest growing market in the world for milk and milk products. Therefore, in order to double the income of farmers, it is important to focus mainly on the dairy sector especially for the small categories of farmers. Dairy is an equitable agri-occupation with seven crore rural households in India depending on dairying for livelihood. It helps to reduce the farmer’s risk when rains are poor and erratic and keeps up a constant inflow of income. In most of these rural households, women take care of the dairying business and thereby contribute economically to family income. At present, 35 crore citizens of rural India or 40% of our rural population, including the most vulnerable section of our population, rural women and marginal or landless households, get gainful employment and constant inflow of cash thanks to dairying. Dairying is not just a large economic activity but also an integral part of our social and cultural heritage. Its uniqueness lies in its unifying power, in the fact that no other industry touches lives of millions of farmers.

What remains is providing market access by offering stable and remunerative prices to farmers and encouraging this generations-old sustainable livelihood source, a role which is fulfilled by dairy cooperatives based on the Amul Model. The success story of Operation Flood is well known, with milk production increasing from 22 million tonnes in 1970 to 164 million tonnes of milk in the current year. In India, most of the dairy business in the organised sector is in the hands of cooperatives, which are owned by farmers themselves.

Our dairy farmers have ensured food-security for our country in one of the most critical dimensions – milk and dairy products. In fact dairy cooperatives have triggered a socio-economic revolution in rural India. Thanks largely to the dairy cooperative movement led by Amul, our rural women have gained some measure of economic independence. Milk is the answer to questions of economic self-sufficiency and income growth of the rural population.

By leveraging on the collective strength of millions of small and marginal farmers, dairy cooperatives have propelled India to a position of prominence on the global dairy map with 19% share of global milk production. For the last 20 years, India continues to be the largest producer of milk in the world and is likely to retain its prime position with an annual growth rate of 5.5% during the last three years as against global milk production, which is growing at 2.1%. India contributes 50% of the global growth in milk production. The monetary value of milk produced in India is more than the current combined value of rice and wheat and this was achieved without subsidy and incentives.

On the demand side, India is already the largest and one of the fastest growing dairy markets in the entire world. With rising income, consumer interest in high protein and fat diets is also increasing, along with growing awareness and availability of value-added dairy products. We expect 2.1% CAGR (cumulative average growth rate) growth in per capita milk consumption in India for the next 50 years. This implies that the per capita milk consumption in India will increase to 800g per day, as compared to the current level of 360g per person per day. In order to fulfill this demand, we need to ensure continuous increase in milk production in our country at CAGR of 3.5% over the next 50 years. One of our key objectives is that that the organised sector within the dairy industry should aim to handle at least 50% of the total milk production from the current level of 20%. Promoting dairy cooperatives should definitely be one of the key pillars of our strategy to enhance farmers’ income. We also need to focus on enhancing productivity of our milch animals through technology deployment and knowledge dissemination among farmers.

Enhancement in milk production and milk productivity will be possible only and only if we are able to convince the next generation of farmers to remain in the dairy business. Dairy farming is a highly demanding business across 365 days of the year, with no holidays. Only through modernization of farm technology, propagation of commercial dairy farming, and remunerative income generation can we attract our rural youth to remain interested in dairy business, thereby restricting rural to urban migration.

In Gujarat, the Amul Cooperative Movement has been successful in doing this over the last 70 years and continuously strives to make progress in this direction. At Amul, through supply-chain innovations and deployment of technology across the entire value-chain, we ensure that 80% of consumers’ rupee flows back to our 3.6 million farmer members spread across 18,600 villages of Gujarat. Focus on consumer marketing, value-added products, and supply-chain efficiency has enabled us to increase the milk procurement price to our farmer-members by 111% in the last eight years. This has motivated our farmer-members to invest in enhancing both the herd size as well as productivity, enhancing our total milk collection by 132% in the last eight years. The combined impact has been that the total income of farmer-members who are part of the Amul family has increased by five times in the last eight years, implying income growth at CAGR of 22% during this period. Just for comparison, the farm-gate milk price dairy farmers in New Zealand increased only by 13% in the last eight years which implies a CAGR of only 1.5% per annum.

In parts of India, where the dairy cooperative network has not yet gained strength and dairy farmers are still largely dependent on the private sector, there is acute distress in the current scenario. Due to the depressed price of dairy commodities such as milk powders and ghee in states such as Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and parts of Northern India, the farm-gate price of milk to dairy farmers has sharply declined in recent months, leading to strikes, protests, and distress among farmers. However, in the case of the Amul cooperative network, even in this scenario, milk procurement prices to farmer-members have increased by almost 4% in the last one year, leading to a record 20% increase in milk procurement.

I now present to you, our Federation’s Annual Report and the Audited Accounts for the year 2017-2018.

REVIEW OFOPERATIONS

MILK PROCUREMENT

The total milk procurement by our member unions during the year 2017-18 averaged 210.42 lakh kilograms (21.04 million kg) per day, representing a growth of 16% over 181.7 lakh kilograms (18.17 million kg) per day achieved during 2016-17. The highest procurement was recorded during February 2018 at 260 lakh kilograms (26 million kg) per day. During the last eight years our milk procurement has witnessed a phenomenal increase of 126%. This enormous growth was a result of the high milk procurement price paid to our farmer-members which has increased by 109% in this period. The highly remunerative price has helped us retain the farmers’ interest in milk production. Better returns from dairying have motivated them to enhance their investments in increasing milk production. Our initiative in promoting the concept of commercial, scientific, cooperative dairy farming is also helping to attract the next generation of dairy farmers to remain in the business.

SALES

During the financial year 2017-18, your Federation registered a turnover of Rs. 29,225 crore, implying a 3.7 fold expansion, during the last eight years, with 17.4% CAGR (cumulative average growth rate) in this period. With 14% growth in consumer products during FY 2017-18, we were among the fastest growing FMCG organisations in India, as reported in the independent retail audit research conducted by Nielsen. Our growth rate in the consumer retail segment was higher than the average growth of 13.5% for the entire Indian FMCG sector during this period. Our overall growth was impacted due to the 60% decline in the dairy commodity business because of depressed conditions in international and domestic dairy commodity markets. However, our long-term strategy of retaining a sharp focus on marketing of value-added consumer products insulated us from volatility and uncertainties of commodity markets.

The expansion of production capacity in the cheese category helped us achieve huge success in this highly competitive category, prompting Amul Cheese register 26% value growth in 2017-18. This enabled us to achieve high utilization of new production capacities within one year of launch.

Similarly, our trendy milk-based beverages have gained immensely in popularity, especially among youth, helping us achieve 38.5% value growth in this category. We have recently launched several exciting new variants such as Irish Drink mocktail, Haldi Doodh (turmeric milk) – a traditional product preferred across the country, as well as Kadhai Doodh, the eternal favourite of Indian consumers.

Amul Cream is rapidly becoming the essential ‘must have’ ingredient in most Indian kitchens and is also very popular among caterers and restaurants. The popularity helped the product achieve 34% value growth. Similarly, the newly introduced Fresh Paneer and long-life ambient Tinned Paneer witnessed 21% value growth in the Paneer category

Amul Masti Dahi posted 26% value growth, leveraging on rapid expansion in our fresh products distribution. Similarly, Amul Buttermilk registered 21% value growth, while Amul Milk in pouches, which is the largest category in our overall business, grew confidently by 12% in absolute terms.

With the implementation of Goods & Service Tax (GST), Amul passed on all the benefits of reduced tax rates on certain specific categories through price reduction to consumers, right from the first day of GST implementation. GST triggered price reduction and resulted in increase in consumption in these categories, leading to higher growth rate. Amulspray, our infant milk food brand registered 11% value growth while Amulya which is India’s largest dairy whitener brand, achieved 11.5% growth.

Our flagship brand Amul Butter achieved 17% growth taking advantage of expansion in packaging capacity of key variants and launch of innovations such as the chocolate buttery spread. Amul Ice Creams, the leader in the Indian ice cream market, had another immensely successful year with 15% value growth.

Distribution Network

We have been successfully traversing the path of expansion by expanding our reach across geographical areas, consumer segments, and consumer age groups by ensuring product availability to the consumers. By doing so we intend to further strengthen our existing very unique and robust distribution model of servicing consumers through four distribution highways – fresh, ambient, refrigerated and frozen.

Working on our expansion policy leading to an enhanced product monitoring framework, we have bifurcated all our major Fresh Product Offices (FPOs) viz. Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, into smaller territory FPOs. This has not only led to improved focus and attention on major markets but has also started yielding us results. In the current year, we launched our range of fresh products in Guwahati. In line with increased infrastructural requirements to service the market in an even more efficient manner, we have increased our infrastructure at branch locations too.

Aligning ourselves to the new tax regime, we have realigned the territories of the branches purely based on logistical reasoning. Working ahead on our motive of being closer to the consumers and also to encash upon the added infrastructure availability, GCMMF has brought in 1,360 more Wholesale Dealers (WDs) and Area Delivery Agents (ADAs) in the current year – a growth of 16% over last year.

We have also strengthened our rural reach with 178 Super WDs covering 3,700 interior markets. These Super WDs, with us since the last five years, contribute to almost 8% of our dairy product turnover.

In the current year we have continued to bring new WDs in the Distribution Management System (DMS) fold, thereby enabling our sales team in tracking market gaps and ensuring they are covered by the WDs. By the end of the financial year we had our DMS implemented at 2,650 WD locations across India which cover 92% of our business. The robust system is bringing in the much needed last mile information availability on a continuous basis further assisting complete control on our reach across markets. We have also continued our WDSM (Wholesale Dealer Salesmen) efficiency enhancement intervention programme ‘POSITIVE’, which has helped us in maximizing field force effectiveness leading to significant value capture and market position improvement. We have continued with our Amul Yatra programme through which we intend to make our business associates aware of the cooperative institutions, their philosophy and infrastructure.

Information Technology Integration

We are happy to inform you that your Federation has successfully completed seven years of operations on SAP ERP. Besides AmulFed Dairy, Vidya Dairy and your Federation, a total of 14 member unions are deriving benefits of using SAP for business transactions. Also in progress is the SAP roll-out at remaining unions. We are also happy to inform you that the GST implementation was completed smoothly with minimum downtime in SAP by making all the required changes and improvements successfully and timely. The GST return filing process has also been implemented for timely submission of GST returns by the Federation and its unions. The implementation of Amul DMS is completed at 2,600+ WD locations, including 1,150 ice cream WD locations and 172 Super WD locations. More than 3,700 salesmen here are booking retailers’ orders on their mobiles using the Amul SFA mobile application. Presently, CGMMF has initiated a project to implement DMS in Fresh Product business to capture and analyse secondary sales data of ADAs.

Your Federation has also made commendable progress in the Amul AMCS (Automatic Milk Collection System) Application implementation at Village Dairy Cooperative Societies. A total of 7,800+ village societies are covered in the project thus far. The application has helped to integrate the Cow-to-Consumer (C2C) IT Value Chain. More than 13 lakh farmers have been integrated in the application. On a daily basis, nine lakh messages (SMS) are being sent to milk producers sharing information on the quality and quantity of milk poured. The mobile applications are deployed for milk producer members, society management and the Supervisor team to access AMCS data at their convenience. More than 75,000 milk producers and 1,500+ society users are reaping the benefits of the mobile applications.

GCMMF is effectively using e-DSR (Daily Sales Report) and e-DQR (Daily Quality Report) for reporting daily market activities and product quality testing data from mobile phones. The Federation is also extensively using the web-portal for reverse auction and e-procurement for cost-effective procurement of goods and services.

In February 2018, your Federation received the prestigious ‘Making of Developed India (MODI) Award’ in the ‘Leveraging IT for Business Performance’ category, from ET Now, the Business Financial News channel.

Exports

Exports of our consumer dairy products have continued strengthening with deeper reach showing growth of over 20%. Our Federation has also continued selling on the Global Dairy Auction platform at a high premium as the global market is still at a very low level as compared to India. It is noteworthy that in spite of a lower commodity export, GCMMF has shown more than 15% growth in this area. I am positive that this upbeat momentum in exports will continue in the coming years by focusing on consumer products exports.

Cooperative Development Programmes

During the year we have provided technical, managerial, and marketing support to Jamnagar Milk Union for the establishment of the dairy cooperative structure in their district. We have continued to provide support to milk unions of Saurashtra and Kutch region to organise farmers to build and develop cooperatives and increase milk production and procurement. We have also developed a dedicated initiative to improve animal health services by conducting health camps and veterinary routes in these two regions.

During the last 18 years, our Member Unions have been implementing Internal Consultant Development (ICD) for developing self leadership among member producers. Till date, 10,754 Village Dairy Co-operative Societies (VDCS) have prepared their Mission Statement and Business Plan under the Vision Mission Strategy (VMS). During the year, 697 Dudh Utpadak-Mandali Sanklit Vikas Ayojan Karyakram (DIVA) programmes have been conducted and 45,712 milk producers have drawn up their action plan.

Every year on Independence Day, the milk producers of Gujarat Dairy Cooperatives conduct a mass tree plantation drive. In the last 11 years they have planted more than 659 lakh trees.

Strategic Calf Rearing Programme:

To create awareness among Milk Producer Members to adopt scientific Calf Rearing Practices and also to create a good replacement stock and high productivity animals, we have initiated the Strategic Calf Rearing Programme. During the year, the strategic programme was successfully implemented at the milk union and field levels, benefitting the milk producers by reducing the calf mortality rate, reducing the age at first calving in animals, and by getting more lactation and increased milk production as compared to conventional calf rearing.

Mastitis Prevention Programme:

Mastitis is a major endemic disease of dairy cattle which adversely affects cattle health, quality of milk, and economics of milk production. Dealing with this second most important disease in dairy cattle and buffaloes in India is a major challenge for our dairy farmers on account of the huge financial losses it brings on. To address and overcome these issues, we have implemented the Mastitis Prevention Programme in 349 villages.

Strategic Productivity Enhancement:

To improve the progeny of the upcoming generation of dairy cattle, the Strategic Productivity Enhancement Programme (PEP) has been initiated in 2,902 villages, covering 27.26 lakh animals. FIP-X, the fertility improvement programme, is being successfully implemented in 3,476 selected villages covering 2.67 lakh animals. Activities of Strategic PEP and FIP are being monitored through a dedicated system on www.amul.org.in.

Entrepreneurship Development Programme:

The young and educated milk producers are trained in the concept of commercial dairy farming and management under the Entrepreneurship Development Programme (EDP). We have conducted 46 sessions and trained 3,408 milk producers during the year.

Fodder Acreage Estimation Using Space Technology:

Amul has taken yet another step forward for the benefit of dairy farmers by signing a Memorandum of Understanding for ‘Fodder acreage assessment using satellite observation and space technology’. The main objective of the MOU is identification and estimation of fodder acreage estimation and identifying suitable areas of current fallows and cultivable wastelands at village level for green fodder cultivation. This can be widely used for drought management in fodder deficit areas as well as allow measuring the wetness in cultivable land to discover probability of fodder cultivation. The technology will pave a new era of fodder crop management using satellite data which will help farmers to estimate fodder production, plan them to grow/intensify fodder production, and improve fodder availability leading to increase in milk production and economic benefit.

DoodhSanjeevaniYojana (DSY)

In 2017-18, the Government of Gujarat has entrusted GCMMF and its member unions to coordinate and facilitate the distribution of Double Tonned Pasteurized Homogenized Fortified Flavoured Milk to children of Anganwadis and schools, and also to pregnant and lactating women of Gujarat. Under Doodh Sanjeevani Yojana (DSY), GCMMF and member unions have implemented distribution of milk in Gujarat’s 81 talukas of 20 districts and have covered around 23.80 lakh beneficiaries. Going by the success of the programme, the Gujarat Government has also entrusted GCMMF and member unions for distribution and supply of milk to the State’s six drought-affected districts.

Take Home Ration:

The Government of India provides ‘Ready to Cook – Take Home Ration (THR)’ food to young children, adolescent girls and pregnant and lactating mothers, through its Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). GCMMF has taken up this opportunity of production and supply of THR to the above beneficiaries and has entered in a tripartite agreement with the Government of Gujarat and the three member unions – Kaira, Banas, and Surat.

The Road Ahead…

During the last eight years, your Federation’s turnover has increased 3.7 times, at CAGR of 17.4%. With a group brand turnover of Rs. 41,000 crore, which represents the unduplicated value of products sold under brand Amul by the Federation and its constituent member unions, we are already the largest food and FMCG organisation in India. While we have surely made huge progress and come a long way, yet, this is just the beginning of what promises to be an exciting and meaningful journey.

Milk and milk products are an integral part of our Indian culture and a traditional way of life. India is not only the largest milk producing and largest milk consuming country in the world but is also the fastest growing market for rowing market for milk in India, Though we are the largest dairy organisation in India, we handle only 7.5% of the total marketable surplus of milk in the country and 25% of the milk handled by the organised sector. Even today, just 20% of the milk flows into the organised sector, with 36% being retained by milk producers and the balance 44% flowing into the informal, unorganised sector. As the leader of Indian dairy industry, it is our responsibility to drive expansion of the organised sector and double its share from 20% to 40% in the next decade. In the same period, the business of your Federation is likely to witness more than four-fold expansion. Those who may be skeptical of this projection would do well to note that in the last 10 years the Federation’s business has impressively expanded seven-fold. We will one day fulfill our dream and achieve our goal of becoming the world’s largest dairy organisation.

Extending our strategy of rapid expansion, we plan to further enhance our distribution footprint within the Indian market by adding 1,500 more redistribution stockists over and above the 1,360 that we had included last year. This will help us expand our direct distribution reach to smaller towns, enhancing availability of our product range in the maximum number of retail stores. We also plan to open five additional branch offices, further enhancing our capability of servicing more geographies with closer monitoring and execution of our sales and distribution efforts.

With the rapid increase in milk procurement, we have already upped our total milk processing capacity to 315 lakh litres per day and planned for a 400 lakh litres per day expansion within the next two years. In Gandhinagar, Gujarat, AmulFed Dairy’s capacity expansion from 35 lakh litres per day to 50 lakh litres per day further underlines its status as the largest dairy factory in India. Several brand new dairy plants will also be commissioned in different parts of Indiathis year. These include, two 8 lakh litre per day capacity plants – one at Taloja, Navi Mumbai, and the other at Navapura near Ahmedabad, and another 2 lakh litre per day capacity plant in Junagadh. We are also expanding our milk powder manufacturing capacity at Himmatnagar. Our new chocolate factory has boosted our production capacity to 1,300 MTs per month, enabling us to launch several new and unique flavoured chocolates which have been attracting huge interest from chocolate lovers and being received favourably by consumers. The new Amul Ice Cream factory at Surat and the proposed new ultra-modern line for spreadable cheeses in Vadodara will further augment our ability to service market demand for value-added products.

Innovation is in our DNA and in tune with our culture of continuous innovation, we have unveiled as many as 102 new products in the last four years, with 48 products being revealed in just the last two years, exceeding our target of launching two new products every month. Many of these new innovations such as diced cheese, single origin chocolates, dark chocolates, EPIC premium ice cream bars, range of kulfis, Irish drink mocktail, Haldi doodh (turmeric milk), Kadhai doodh, cheese spreads, international style cheese slice-on-slice packs, lactose-free milk and ice cream, ready-to-eat snacks, traditional Indian desserts such as rasmalai, milk cake, and doda barfi among several others, have already created ripples in the market.

Rapidly evolving consumer behaviour and preference is also leading to swift transformation of retail channels, from the traditional retailers to organised modern retail chains and now to online e-commerce. While we are aware that only the most customer-centric and most cost-effective way of servicing market demand will thrive eventually, we are also aligning our business processes to ensure maximum reach and presence in all channels.

We have taken concrete steps to plan for the next wave of growth, which we feel will come from ‘out of home’ consumption. With evolving lifestyles and changing family structures, the culture of ‘eating out’ is leading to rapid and aggressive growth in the food services segment which caters to restaurants, fast food joints and chains, hotels, cafes, caterers, and institutional canteens. Another significant thrust area is to expand our footprint in the international market, taking our value-added consumer products not only to the Indian diaspora spread across the globe but also to consumers of other nationalities as well.

With the warm wishes, love, blessings, and support of consumers, farmers, and fellow citizens from every walk of life, we hope to take the ‘Taste of India’ to the entire world, in the near future.

Acknowledgements

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

We are extremely thankful to the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India and Hon’ble Chief Minister of Gujarat for their constant support and guidance. We are grateful to the Government of India for the immense support received from various departments, specifically from the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairy Development. We convey our special thanks to NCDC (National Cooperative Dairy Corporation) for providing valuable support to our village cooperative dairy societies. We are also thankful to the Government of Gujarat, especially the Department of Animal Husbandry and Cooperation, for their very supportive and facilitating role.

The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) has played a role in our growth and development. We are extremely grateful to the Chairman, NDDB, for his continuous support to our organisation. The National Cooperative Dairy Federation of India has been providing us with invaluable support in coordination with other agencies and organisations. We are very grateful to them.

The Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), as always, has contributed to the perspective building and professionalisation of the management of the cooperative sector. We express deep gratitude for their support.

We are indebted to Vidya Dairy for having organised training programmes on dairy technology for our employees. We are also grateful to Anand Agriculture University and SMC College of Dairy Science, Anand, for strengthening the dairy cooperative sector by providing technically-skilled manpower. We also express our sincere thanks to the College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, Anand. Our advertising agencies, bankers, insurers, management consultants, 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 cooperatives 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 cooperation 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

Ramsinhbhai P. Parmar

Chairman

Click below for the other speeches:

• 43rd Annual General Body Meeting held on 15th June, 2017
• 42nd Annual General Body Meeting held on 17th June, 2016
• 41st Annual General Body Meeting held on 14th May, 2015
• 40th Annual General Body Meeting held on 15th May, 2014
• Speech of Chairman, Vipulbhai M. Chaudhary: 39th Annual Report 2012-2013
• Speech of Chairman, P. G. Bhatol: 38th Annual Report 2011-2012
• Speech of Chairman, P. G. Bhatol: 37th Annual Report 2010-2011
• Speech of Chairman, P. G. Bhatol: 36th Annual Report 2009-2010
• Speech of Chairman, P. G. Bhatol: 35th Annual Report 2008-2009
• Speech of Chairman, P. G. Bhatol: 34th Annual Report 2007-2008
• Speech of Chairman, P. G. Bhatol: 33rd Annual Report 2006-2007
• Speech of Chairman, P. G. Bhatol: 32nd Annual Report 2005-2006
• Speech of Chairman, Dr V Kurien: 31st Annual Report 2004-2005
• Speech of Chairman, Dr V Kurien: 30th Annual Report 2003-2004
• Speech of Chairman, Dr V Kurien: 29th Annual Report 2002-2003
• Speech of Chairman, Dr V Kurien: 28th Annual Report 2001-2002
• Speech of Chairman, Dr V Kurien: 27th Annual Report 2000-2001
• Speech of Chairman, Dr V Kurien: 26th Annual Report 1999-2000
• Speech of Chairman, Dr V Kurien: 25th Annual Report 1998-1999