Hassan/Bengaluru/Kalaburagi: A week ago, a Kannada YouTube channel put out a video where blindfolded participants tasted Nandini and Amul ice creams to shed light on the raging dairy controversy in Karnataka.
The five contestants then revealed their choice of vanilla flavored ice cream in the video, which has been viewed nearly 3 lakh times.
Here’s the catch. Amul and Nandini ice creams come from the same factories, as the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) sells half of its daily production to a Gujarat-based cooperative. And the recipe is the same. Just branded differently.
“We produce about 20,000 liters of ice cream per day (at the Hassan plant) and about 50 per cent of the ice cream produced is for Amul. We co-pack it for Amul. After that they sell it in the name of Amul.
Three such plants follow the same practice, but in different amounts.
Traveling across Karnataka, advertisements with pictures of Amul ice cream are a common sight. The milk of choice and availability is Nandini.
The two brands have long co-existed in Karnataka – one of the big milk-producing states – until it became an election issue last December after Union minister Amit Shah said that Amul and Nandini should be merged. should be done.
Amul’s advertisement announcing it was going to sell milk in Bengaluru has fueled the opposition’s allegation of a ‘sinister’ plot by the BJP to wipe out a brand that has expanded the Kannada identity.
India’s largest cooperative Amul was identified as a ‘North Indian brand’ and given the spin that it was part of a larger ‘conspiracy’ by Hindi, Hindu and Hindutva imposers.
But the issue has less resonance in the electoral battleground.
“When big leaders address public meetings, they must have mentioned this issue. But none of the party candidates raised this issue in their interactions with us,” says Harish GS, a farmer in Gendehalli, Beluru.
‘Milk is like salary’
BS Nagaraju, a 42-year-old farmer, has four cows, three Sindhi crosses and one indigenous breed, grazing in the pristine pastures of S Bommadihalli, just outside Belur in Hassan district. Most of his land is on the side of the state highway. Nagaraju grows coffee, black pepper, paddy, jowar and ragi in his total holding of 12 acres.
Their cows give only about 10 liters of milk in total. daily, depends on the weather. Cows give more milk during the rainy season, and it is almost halved during summer and winter due to the availability of fodder drops.
Three years ago, a small dairy was set up by KMF near her house as part of its cooperative expansion, giving her the option of selling surplus milk. “Earlier, we mostly used milk for our personal use…to make butter, ghee, buttermilk. But now since the dairy has come, I sell it there,” he says.
Deduct the cost of fodder, about Rs 2,400 for two bags a month, Nagaraju makes about Rs 10,000.
About 3 km away, Shankar Gowda, 42, bought three cows for between Rs 20,000 and Rs 23,000. He has been a farmer for almost 30 years but milk provides additional income. “It’s like a salary,” says Gowda.
His milk drop off point is Birana Godu, which is about 1 km away from his house.
In drought-hit Karnataka, dairy farming Compensates the losses from agriculture and provides additional income to the farming communities to support themselves. Farmers say selling to a private player is not looked down upon as long as the price is right.
KMF also has a vast network compared to the limited resources of private players. KMF officials say, “Private companies buy at a higher price and also sell at a higher price.”
But KMF’s convenience and strong network makes it a force to be reckoned with.
“There are around 40 households in our village and we collect around 400-650 liters per day. Most of the milkers here live within a 10 km radius,” says Parmish BP of Birana Godu village in Beluru.
His wife, a director of the local co-operative society, is the main point person for the whole operation which takes place between 6 and 7 in the morning Every day.
The milk producers here say that this is a daily matter but it has nothing to do with politics.
“Nandini is good and let her be. What’s the point of changing it? But there is no connection between milk and elections. All the farmers’ concern is to leave the milk at the dairy and return. No one bothered to look beyond ,” says Nagaraju.
“We want KMF and Nandini, but it has nothing to do with the way we vote. None of the candidates in our district even mention it, and it doesn’t matter,” says Parmish.
Producers have to discard the milk within an hour of milking the cow And the van has to take it to the factory for cooling within three hours to maintain the quality as the milk needs to be of a certain temperature.
On-the-spot analysis is done to check for SNF (Solid-Non-Fat) and value added fat content. The cooperative gets Rs 32.50 per liter plus an additional 20 paise for each point of fat and SNF content.
In addition, in 2008 the Government of Karnataka announced an incentive of Rs 2 per liter for milk producers to address the agrarian crisis. The ‘Protsaha Dhan’ (financial incentive) was later extended and it is Rs 5 for everyone who sells KMF.
The price paid to cooperatives varies from union to union and the cost of retail milk is determined by the government in consultation with stakeholders and the KMF apex body.
at around 4 AM the next day after collectionThe milk van drops off pouches of the product at various roadside agencies at thousands of locations in the state.
Kirti, a 25-year-old owner of one such store, says, “We get around 100 liters of pouch milk every day and most of it is sold.”
Read also: Karnataka dairy war will sing out both Amul and Nandini by promoting anti-competitive practices
‘We sell what the public wants’
In Kalaburagi town, Nandini franchise owners feel that Amul’s entry into the market will not affect their prospects. Actually, he says that there is a demand for Amul’s products in the market.
Mohammad Moinuddin, who runs the Nandini franchise, gives the example of another dairy brand, Arogya.
“When Arogya came into the market, it had a one plus one offer on milk packets. Thousands of people shopped. After this, I paid Rs 80,000 plus Rs 80,000 to take the franchise, But my turn is yet to come,” says Moinuddin. “Healthy milk is thick. People love it for their kids. But supplies are scarce.
Although Moinuddin says that the rates of Nandini’s products are better. Nandini milk sells for Rs 40 per litre, Arogya’s costs Rs 57, he says.
Nandini Jamdar, owner of another Nandini franchise, says that there is no loss to the seller or the manufacturer. “We will sell what the public wants. If Amul comes, our sales will be good.
A KMF Hassan official told ThePrint that out of 11.5 lakh liters collected from Hassan, Chikmagalur and Kodagu districts, only 2 lakh bags are sold in the region.
the rest is sold dairies in Hyderabad and Kerala where it is packaged and sold under the brand name Nandini. The remaining milk is packed in tetra packs (with longer shelf life) and sold to defense and retail. KMF also supplies milk for government welfare programs in various states. converts to remainder dairy Products like curd, buttermilk, butter, ice cream and milk powder.
Though KMF sold to other private dairies in the past, it stopped doing so a few years back, the official confirmed.
‘Milk and politics’
Although politics takes place within milk unions, it rarely becomes an election issue.
During the KR Pete bypoll in December 2019, the BJP registered its first victory in Mandya district, a Vokkaliga bastion.
local Residents It is claimed that the BJP made a strategy to deliver milk to the houses in the morning and keep the candidate’s form on the packets and money as bribe. when the delivery happened it was like getting milk on promise or “Halina Runa” As the locals say.
The BJP has vehemently denied the allegation, but has a network of milk unions that covers about 50 lakh people across the state.
KMF president and BJP MLA Balachandra Jarkiholi says he suspects the opposition was raising the Amul vs Nandini issue to mislead voters by floating the theory of merger as nearly 50 lakh people are directly or indirectly employed in the milk industry in Karnataka. were involved from
The Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Limited (KMF) has a vast network of over 14,000 milk cooperatives, 14 milk unions and over 2.4 million milk producers in 22,000 villages. It buys more than 84 lakh kg milk per day and pays more than Rs 17 crore as payment.
Kurien’s Midas Touch
If biography of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda and late Varghese Kurian If anything, the latter helped develop a quintessentially Kannada brand.
Deve Gowda biographer Sugata Srinivasaraju shares an interesting anecdote from the history books in an online chat with @kkroundtables.
In 1996, when Deve Gowda was the PM, he met Kurien and sought his help in enhancing Nandini’s capabilities. “Kurien says there can be only one Taj Mahal and it is in Anand,” recalls Srinivasaraju.
The PM left disappointed. But as Gowda was boarding his flight, Kurien came running, apologized for the previous conversation and offered to help build the brand.
Gowda’s elder son H.D. Revanna handled the affairs of milk unions at the time and remains an important influence today. The improvement of the brand had political benefits for the Gowda clan.
In 2023, the dairy row grabbed national headlines, putting the BJP on the backfoot.
“Already 16 to 18 different private and public sector brands are selling milk products in the state. But Nandini remains the most preferred brand in the market due to its high quality. So to say that Amul is a threat to Nandini is an insult to our domestic brand,” Karnataka Health Minister K. Sudhakar told reporters on 8 April.
Since then many BJP leaders have dismissed the Congress’s allegations of imposing one brand on another, attributing it more to political strategy than Nandini’s concern.
(Edited by Tony Rae)
Read also: ‘No other option’ – behind Amul price revision, the fight against rising prices in Gujarat’s dairies