Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), owner of the Amul brand, will invest about ₹1,000 crore to set up milk processing plants across various Indian states, and ₹500 crore on facilities for new products like edible oil over the next two years.

In an interview with PTI, GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi said it expects 12-15% growth in revenue in current fiscal year despite COVID-19 pandemic, as demand for branded food products has increased.

Mr Sodhi noted that household consumption of milk and other dairy products has increased, compensating loss of sales caused by closure of hotels and restaurants during the lockdown period.

Indian dairy giant Amul sells 140 lakh litres of fresh milk per day, mainly in the states of Gujarat, Delhi-NCR and Uttar Pradesh, while its dairy products are sold across the country.

With the launch of ‘Janmay’ brand of consumer packs of edible oils in the Indian state of Gujarat, India’s popular dairy brand Amul has entered the edible oils segment to provide remunerative prices to oilseed farmers and support the nation’s Self-Reliant Mission.

The dairy major has launched five variants including soyabean oil, groundnut oil, farm-fresh cottonseed oil, sunflower and mustard oil. Initially, it will be available in the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan markets through Amul parlours and retail counters.

It may be mentioned here that Janmay means “fresh” or “newly born.” Products are being packed at a modern plant near Panalpur, North Gujarat.

“With an objective of providing stable and remunerative price to edible oilseed growers of Gujarat and become Atmanirbhar (Self-Reliant) in domestic edible oil production as envisaged by PM Narendra Modi, we are launching a range of edible oil under the Janmay brand,” said RS Sodhi, MD of Amul.

He added that the dairy cooperative has the experience of marketing mustard and other oils under the Dhara brand in the 1990s.

Amid the rising anti-China tensions, Twitter recently blocked the social media page of Dairy giant Amul for a limited period.

As per reports, the official account of Amul India was blocked over a creative supporting the boycott of Chinese goods.

In the new cartoon, the Amul girl was shown saving the nation from the dragon.

Here’s the Amul doodle:

#Amul Topical: About the boycott of Chinese products… pic.twitter.com/ZITa0tOb1h

— Amul.coop (@Amul_Coop) June 3, 2020

On accessing the account, a message saying “This account is temporarily restricted. You’re seeing this warning because there has been some unusual activity from this account. Do you still want to view it?” was displayed.

Although the account was later restored, netizens slammed the micro-blogging website for censoring the creative.

“Safety and security of the accounts is a key priority for us and to ensure an account has not been compromised sometimes we require the account owner to complete a simple reCAPTCHA process. These challenges are simple for authentic account owners to solve but difficult (or costly) for spammy or malicious account owners to complete,” a Twitter spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

“To protect the accounts, we routinely require them to clear this security key for login verification,” the spokesperson said.

It is worth noting that Amul Topical with the ‘Amul Girl’ first came up in 1966. It is known for its creatives on global and local topics.