The launch of a dairy cooperative society where a fair profit was shared with the farmers in a country with a population of 130 cr was a hot topic in the world. Eventually, the name of the brand became synonymous with pure milk. The current situation caused by COVID-19 has brought that revolution started by Amul in Gujarat back to the limelight. Amul’s powerful supply chain management that distributed products even at the remote villages during the lockdown has become a case study now. Amul, which achieved 15% business growth during the global downturn, once again proves the power of dairy farmers.
According to Rupinder Singh Sodhi, MD of AMUL, the brand with an annual turnover of Rs 52,000 crore is showing growth in the financial year 2020-21.
In the night of March when PM announced nationwide lockdown, Amul had to open their warehouses and distribute milk packets even at retail. Lunglei, the Mizoram town, is almost 3000 kilometres away from Gujarat. A long queue stretching over miles was formed in front of the main wholesale warehouse in the midnight. Amul opened the warehouse and distributed milk to the people. Demand for milk, butter and cheese has only increased since March. Not only Amul successfully delivered products every day, but also the product carts reached shops on time, meeting people’s demands. Experts give credit to the effective supply chain management of Amul. The process of collecting milk from millions of farmers and delivering after precise processing and packaging overcoming the travel restraints of lockdown is praiseworthy.
Amul is the reason why a large section of the dairy farmers in the country is financially secure. The uniqueness of the Amul model is that up to 80% of the consumer price goes to the farmers. Amul’s owners are 36 lakh farmers who deliver milk twice a day to societies in 18600 villages. Every day, Amul reaches 100 crore customers through 10 lakh retail shops.
The credit to Amul’s performance during the COVID goes to the strong supply chain network that it built over the years. More socially innovative projects like Amul are the need of the hour.
