Mahadev Jankar
Aiming to provide quality products and milk at reasonable rates, the Maharashtra government is bringing milk production under one single brand — Aarey. The move is also set in the backdrop of losing market share in Maharashtra to an aggressive Amul from the neighbouring Gujarat. The animal husbandry and dairy development department is making policy changes in order to bring all the private brands under the state-owned Aarey.
Currently, Aarey is incurring losses owing to corruption and dominance of the private brands. The state has decided that the private brands can function, but under the name of Aarey. “We have given government lands to the private dairies and now realised that our own Aarey brand is incurring losses. The farmers prefer giving milk to the private brands and we are forced to buy the excess milk at very low cost. On the other hand, Amul has been capturing our market. Hence we have decided to introduce a single brand, Aarey, in the market and ask all other brands to consolidate with the state brand,” animal husbandry and dairy development minister Mahadev Jankar told The Asian Age.
The department is making policy changes to take the move towards making a single brand. “We have asked chief minister Devendra Fadnavis to give us six months to make the changes. The private brands will have to use Aarey’s name and give up on their own brand names. Also, the consumers would benefit from the decision, as they will get all the products and milk of the same quality and same value. Currently, only Aarey products are subsidised but the private brands have no cap on the milk and other products’ values,” Mr Jankar said.
To a query about opposition from the private brands to change their names to Aarey, the minister said the government is ready to have a legal battle on the issue. “We have given lands to many of the private dairies which have established themselves as brands. The government has not benefited from these private brands. In fact, we are losing our revenue. We are ready for the legal battle with the brands,” he said.
