Union Budget Proposes to Set Up Dairy Development Fund
Finance Minister
announces setting up of a USD1.23 Billion dairy development fund
India: In the Union Budget 2017-18, Mr. Arun Jaitely, the Finance Minister of
India, has proposed setting-up of a Dairy Processing and Infrastructure
Development Fund with a corpus of USD1.23 Billion over three years. This
Processing and Infrastructure Development Fund will be set up under the NABARD.
In his Budget speech, Mr. Jaitley said that the fund, with an initial corpus of
USD307 Million, which is to be quadrupled in three years, would be used to
enable expansion of milk processing capacity in the country. India is the
world’s largest producer of milk, accounting for nearly a fifth of global
production. This
allocation is expected to help the cooperatives in reducing their operating
costs.
TechSci
Research depicts that the allocation of fund is set to benefit the country’s overall
dairy industry especially the local cooperative societies which are expected to
reduce their operating costs. Consequently, their market share is set to
increase during the forecast period.
According to a recently
published report by TechSci Research,
“India
Dairy Products Market By Type, Competition
Forecast and Opportunities, 2011 – 2021”, the market for dairy products in
India is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 7% during 2016 - 2021. In 2015,
North India dominated the country’s dairy products market, on account of increasing
per capita expenditure, rising youth population, introduction of value added
dairy products, changing consumption patterns, and growing penetration of
international players. India dairy products market is witnessing a shift
towards healthier products such as probiotic drinks, yogurts, etc. Few of the
leading players operating in India dairy products market include Gujarat
Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd., National Dairy Development Board,
Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Ltd., and Tamil Nadu
Co-operative Milk Producers' Federation Limited, among others.