Sudha, the taste of Bihar, is all set to go national. Having spurred a white revolution in the hitherto backward state of Bihar, Sudha milk will now sell in Delhi and Kolkata.
“It’s a proud moment for Bihar as for the first time any of the state’s milk federations has been able to transgress the state boundaries by its sheer genuineness and purity. In fact, every Bihari should be proud of Sudha in the same was as every Gujarati is proud of Amul,” said Bihar State Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation (COMPFED)’s managing director Arunish Chawla. COMPFED created history on July 14 when its daily procurement of milk crossed the seven-lakh-litres-a-day mark. The procurement will soon go up to over 9 lakh litres per day, a proud Chawla said. But the history was not made in a day. Over the years since 1983 several milk unions have joined hands to script the success story of COMPFED, which sells all its milk products under the brand name of Sudha. In the process, theirs have become one of the best examples of cooperative achievement in a developing economy. There are currently eight milk unions and three marketing dairies which add to the federation’s total procurement per day. They are Barauni Milk Union known as Deshratna Rajendra Prasad Milk Union, Visha-Pataliputra Milk Union with its headquarters at Patna, Samastipur-based Mithila Milk Union, Muzaffarpur-based Tirhut Milk Union, Bhagalpur’s Vikramshila Milk Union, Ara’s Shahabad Milk Union, Gaya’s Magadh Dairy Project and Kosi Dairy Project headquartered at Purnia. COMPFED has three marketing dairies at Jamshedpur, Ranchi and Bokaro. These three procure milk from various milk unions and even their local resources. With surplus milk at its disposal, COMPFED has signed an agreement with the Delhi Milk Scheme run by Mother Dairy and Amul in Kolkata to supply 30,000 litres of milk each to the two metros every day later from this month. This supply, however, will be marketed there under the brand names of Mother Dairy and Amul. “Two tankers will be sent from Samastipur to Delhi while two tankers from Barauni will carry milk to Kolkata every day,” said Chawla. TNN / 18 July 2007
