Amul makes foray into organic food industry

Dairy major GCMMF, which markets its products under Amul brand, on Saturday announced entry into organic food market with the launch of organic wheat flour.

The first product launched in this portfolio is "Amul Organic Whole Wheat Atta", Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) said in a statement.

Further, Amul will be launching products like moong daal, tur daal, chana daal and basmati rice in its organic portfolio.

The production of Amul organic atta is being done at state-of-the-art processing facility, Tribhuvan Das Patel Mogar Food Complex.

The product goes through a thorough procedure of lab testing multiple times to make sure that the product is as per organic standard laid down by Government of India, it said.

R S Sodhi , MD, GCMMF, said the cooperative is in the process of developing a pool of organic farmers and replicate their existing milk model in the organic sourcing.

This will increase the income of organic farmers and will lead to overall democratisation of the organic food industry.

Currently, the major challenge for the farmers is unavailability of market linkage for organic products and high cost of organic testing facilities, the statement said.

Therefore, along with creation of market linkage for organic farmers, Amul is in process of setting up organic testing laboratories at 5 locations across India.

The first lab is being established at the Amul Fed Dairy in Ahmedabad.

GCMMF said the prime objective of launching organic wheat flour is to help its customers embark on a mission to a more sustainable and healthy lifestyle.

Amul organic atta will be launched at Amul Parlours and leading retail stores across Gujarat initially from the first week of June.

The product will also be available online for home delivery across Gujarat, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Pune from June onwards.

It will be available in two pack sizes of 1 kilogram at MRP of Rs 60 and 5 kilogram at MRP of Rs 290.