Entering the nascent Rs 2,000-crore organic food segment in India, Amul will soon launch organic “aata”, rice, honey, chocolates and potato products, according to RS Sodhi, managing director of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF).
It also intends to establish a “green college” in Anand to educate young farmers about organic and natural farming, as well as “organic haats” throughout Gujarat to market and sell organic products.
“In addition, we are creating a logo for these organic products. It will be made public soon,” Sodhi said on the sidelines of a “chintan shibir” — a two-day brainstorming session for state government officials — hosted by the Gujarat government’s co-operation department on Wednesday at the Sardar Patel Institute of Public Administration (SPIPA) in Ahmedabad.
Amul, according to Sodhi, is developing testing, distribution, and marketing infrastructure for organic and natural farming products. GCMMF also intends to establish a laboratory that will test and certify organic products.
“Testing is big for us. If we offer a product under the Amul brand, we want it to properly tested and authenticated. Though costly, we are planning to set up a laboratory to test and certify organic products that we plan to source from farmers who are part of our district unions,” Sodhi added.
Amul’s move to enter the organic food marketing segment comes after Union Co-operation Minister Amit Shah urged the dairy behemoth to lead an initiative to create testing, distribution, and marketing infrastructure for organic products in the country during his visit to Anand in November 2021.
Differentiating organic farming and natural farming, Sodhi said both methods were free of chemical fertilisers. “Organic farming has a higher input cost in the form of bio fertilisers, etc., while natural farming has almost no input cost. Except this difference, both the methods are the same,” he added.
Amul will establish a green college in Anand in collaboration with the Tribhovandas Foundation, a charitable trust founded by Amul’s founder chairman, Tribhovandas Patel.
“We are designing courses about organic and natural farming that will be offered at this college. It will also include demonstration projects and later when they finish their training, we will link them with the markets,” he added.
At the chintan shibir, Jagdish Vishwakarma, state minister for cooperation (independent charge), Raghavji Patel, cabinet minister for agriculture and animal husbandry, Jitu Chaudhari, minister of state for fisheries and Mukesh Patel, minister of state for agriculture, were present.
“Organic food is considered elite. It is bought by urban working couples who belong to higher income groups and are health conscious. The common man in India does not buy organic. It is currently a fad. The aim of Amul is to democratise organic food and make it available for the common man. We want to people to trust our products ,” Sodhi said.
Amul will also set up “organic haats” across Gujarat where producers can sell directly to consumers, as well as provide an e-commerce platform to existing organic players, he said.
According to Sodhi, organic farming is utilised on over 2.6 lakh acres in India, with Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra accounting for 40% and 22% of the total area under organic farming, respectively, while Gujarat has only 3%.
“The market of organic products in India is worth Rs 23,000 crore, of which the market for organic food is just Rs 2,000 crore, while products worth Rs 7,000 crore are exported. Most of it is soybean extracts worth Rs 4,000 crore,” he added.