November 14, 2007

 

India's Heritage to increase milk procurement from Andhra Pradesh

 

 

Heritage Foods India Limited will increase its milk procurement from Andhra Pradesh by 15 percent every year over the next three-four years. The company currently procures 8 lakh litres of milk per day from three states - Andhra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. 

 

NV Venkata Rao, the company's vice-president for procurement and inputs said about 60 percent is procured from Andhra Pradesh and upgrading its infrastructure facilities will increase its purchase. 

 

Heritage has about 57 milk chilling and milk packing stations and 20 bulk coolers. It has decided to add 15-20 bulk coolers every year across the state, particularly in the north coastal Andhra Pradesh. 

 

At present, Heritage procures between 22,000 litres and 30,000 litres of milk a day from the Vizag region. Rao said they are targeting at least 1 lakh litres in 2008/09 and 2 lakh litres by 2009/10. Accordingly, the company is adding 20 more bulk coolers in this region during this fiscal. Each cooler would cost about Rs 14 lakh. 

 

The company also has plans for Maharashtra as it purchased a dairy plant in Sangavi two months ago which now procures about 50,000 litres of cow milk a day from the surrounding areas. After processing, the milk is being marketed in Mumbai, Pune and Baramati areas. 

 

Rao said procurement in Maharashtra is direct from farmers and targets to procure 2 lakh litres of milk a day in the area for next two years.

 

With these initiatives, the company expects its milk procurement to cross 10 lakh litres per day during the next fiscal.