August 31, 2010

India's IFFCO to build bacteria-free dairy plant

The Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) is setting up a dairy project at Nellore in Andhra Pradesh with a foreign partner to produce bacteria-free milk as per international standards.

IFFCO is the world's largest fertiliser cooperative federation which is registered as a multi-state cooperative society. It has over 40,000 member cooperatives.

The new plant was expected to cater to the increasing demand for dairy products, said IFFCO managing director Uday Shanker Awasthi, adding that IFFCO plans to sell these products in domestic as well as foreign markets.

"Quantity of bacteria in milk produce in India is very high. We plan to produce high quality milk which retains its freshness for a longer time," Awasthi said.

In the financial year 2009-10, the cooperative registered a business of INR16,800 crore (US$3.57 billion) and sold 118 lakh (11.8 million) tonnes of fertiliser in the country.