June 4, 2014

India's Karnataka state to export milk to South Africa

The federation is planning to export 35-40 lakh litres (3.5 million - 4 million litres) of skimmed milk to South Africa this year in six-seven consignments in containers of six-lakh litre (600,000-litre) capacity each. With an average production of 58 lakh litres (5.8 million litres) per day, the federation is targeting to increase it to 65 lakh litres (6.5 million litres) per day this fiscal year.

As the largest cooperative dairy federation in south India, KMF exports milk and milk products to 17 countries across South Asia, West Asia (Gulf region), Russia, Europe and Africa under its popular "Nandini" brand.

Owned and managed by 2.25-million producers through 12,334 dairy cooperative societies at the village level, the federation has 13 district cooperative milk unions across the state.

"We secured the first order to ship our high quality cow milk product (Good Life), as has a longer shelf life. Packed in Tetra Pak, it is 99.5% fat free and has 9% SNF (solid not fat)," the official said.

Though the federation had to restrict exports when drought hit the state in 2012-13 and during lean season earlier, it was able to step up on renewed orders from countries like Russia and Singapore for skimmed milk powder and skimmed milk.

"We were able to export 1,000 tonnes of skimmed milk powder to Russia and 150,000 litres of milk to Singapore last fiscal (2013-14) as the south-west monsoon was more than normal and production was high," the official said.