December 23, 2009

 

India remains world's largest milk producer

 

 

Despite the global economic gloom, India has retained its position as the world's largest milk producer with output expected to reach 110 million tonnes for 2009.

 

The projection was an increase from India's 2007-08 milk production of 104.8 million tonnes, according to the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) on Tuesday (Dec 22).

 

During the year, dairy cooperatives purchased about 9.2 million tonnes of milk, up 9.7% on-year.

 

In 2006-07, the growth rate of Indian dairy cooperatives hit an all time low with a mere 1.1%, compared to a 7% growth rate achieved in 2005-06. In 2007-08, dairy cooperatives procured about 8.3 million tonnes of milk, improving the growth rate to 5.4%.

India continues enjoying a share of nearly 15% of the world's milk production, which is estimated to be about 688 million tonnes in 2008, up 1.7% from the previous year when the estimated milk production was 676 million tonnes.

 

On average, the cooperatives procured about 14% of the national marketable surplus covering about 21% of India's villages and 18% of rural milk-producing households. The cooperatives marketed about 7.3 million tonnes of liquid milk, registering an annual increase of 5.7%, said NDDB.

 

The FAO stated in June this year that the US and China are the second and third largest milk producers in the world, respectively.