India
Five cooperative giants including Amul and NDDB to set up an umbrella body to promote organic products | India News
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NEW DELHI: India’s five leading cooperatives, including Amul, Nafed and National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), have come forward to set up a multi-state cooperative society for organic products with an authorized share capital of Rs 500 crore. The society will have nation-wide operations with its registered office at Anand, Gujarat.
The move is in response to the recent cabinet decision that approved setting up a national-level cooperative society as an umbrella organisation for aggregation, certification, testing, procurement, storage, processing, branding, labelling and marketing of organic products so that its benefits could reach cultivators through niche markets among both domestic and global consumers.
Though the size of the world organic food market by retail sales is around Rs 10 lakh crore, India accounts for only 2.7% of the world market and thus has a huge potential to expand.
“Setting up a national-level cooperative exclusively for organic products will not only help India gain better access to the global market but also help the country’s lakhs of farmers who produce fertilizers- and pesticides-free farm crops,” said an official in the ministry of cooperation.
There are around 34 lakh organic farmers in 190 countries with land coverage of 797 lakh hectares (1.6% of total agricultural land of the world) of which Australia has the largest land coverage of 357 lakh hectares. India ranks fourth with 27 lakh hectares of land under organic farming. Market size of certified organic product in India is worth Rs 27,000 crore including export of Rs 7,000 crore.
“This is quite less if we compare it with countries like Australia, Argentina and Uruguay, considering the fact that India alone has 16 lakh out of the total 34 lakh organic farmers globally. The five cooperative giants will collectively try not only to expand the domestic market of organic products but also to tap global markets for the benefits of farmers,” said the official.
Besides NDDB, Nafed and Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets milk products under the Amul brand, the other two big cooperatives who would be the promoters of the national-level cooperative society for organic food products are National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Ltd (NCCF). These five cooperatives will contribute Rs 20 crore each for initial paid-up share capital.
Sources in the ministry said that the NDDB will be the main promoter and the organic products would be marketed under the Amul brand as the GCMMF already has trusted organic product lines in the market. A new brand may be unveiled in future for marketing of the products globally, they added.
The move is in response to the recent cabinet decision that approved setting up a national-level cooperative society as an umbrella organisation for aggregation, certification, testing, procurement, storage, processing, branding, labelling and marketing of organic products so that its benefits could reach cultivators through niche markets among both domestic and global consumers.
Though the size of the world organic food market by retail sales is around Rs 10 lakh crore, India accounts for only 2.7% of the world market and thus has a huge potential to expand.
“Setting up a national-level cooperative exclusively for organic products will not only help India gain better access to the global market but also help the country’s lakhs of farmers who produce fertilizers- and pesticides-free farm crops,” said an official in the ministry of cooperation.
There are around 34 lakh organic farmers in 190 countries with land coverage of 797 lakh hectares (1.6% of total agricultural land of the world) of which Australia has the largest land coverage of 357 lakh hectares. India ranks fourth with 27 lakh hectares of land under organic farming. Market size of certified organic product in India is worth Rs 27,000 crore including export of Rs 7,000 crore.
“This is quite less if we compare it with countries like Australia, Argentina and Uruguay, considering the fact that India alone has 16 lakh out of the total 34 lakh organic farmers globally. The five cooperative giants will collectively try not only to expand the domestic market of organic products but also to tap global markets for the benefits of farmers,” said the official.
Besides NDDB, Nafed and Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets milk products under the Amul brand, the other two big cooperatives who would be the promoters of the national-level cooperative society for organic food products are National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) and National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Ltd (NCCF). These five cooperatives will contribute Rs 20 crore each for initial paid-up share capital.
Sources in the ministry said that the NDDB will be the main promoter and the organic products would be marketed under the Amul brand as the GCMMF already has trusted organic product lines in the market. A new brand may be unveiled in future for marketing of the products globally, they added.
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