Strengths and Weaknesses

• Strength: The major strength of the traditional dairy product sector is the mass appeal enjoyed by the wide variety of products. The market for these products far exceeds that for western dairy products like milk powder, table butter and cheese. Their operating margins are also much higher than the western dairy products. The increasing demand for these products presents a great opportunity for the organized dairies in the country to modernize and scale up the production.
• Weakness: The major weakness of this sector is the practice of  inadequate hygiene in the preparation and handling of these products and their relatively short shelf life. The preparation and marketing of these products is generally done by halwais, and that limits development in the sector.
• Opportunity: The expanding business prospects provided by these products and their accompanying value-addition, call for a thorough study of this sector. It would facilitate an increase in the production and marketing of hygienically prepared and properly packed products to meet the demand of a growing population as has been demonstrated at the NDDB's Sugam Dairy.

• Achievers: It is encouraging that the success of Sugam has been replicated in other parts of the country in the public, cooperative and private sectors. Presently, dairy plants mass-producing our traditional sweets include:
  • Sabarkantha and Rajkot in Gujarat
  • Warana at Kolhapur in Maharashtra
  • Madras, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chittoor in South India
  • Ludhiana, Lucknow and Indore in North India
  • Mother Dairy in Calcutta.
  • Kerala Cooperative Milk Federation is encouraging its women members to take to the production of indigenous milk delicacies in the modern way at the village level.
• In the private sector, some of the well-known names include:
  • Parsi Dairy Farm, Punjabi Ghasitaram Halwai and Adarsh Dugdhalaya in Mumbai
  • Chitale Bandhu in Pune
  • K.C. Das in Bangalore and Calcutta.

This trend is gaining ground and will undoubtedly give a further stimulus to milk consumption and ensure a better price to primary producers.

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