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COMFED popularises value-added Sudha products
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Saturday, 07 January, 2006, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Set up with a noble mission to upgrade the socio-economic condition of rural farmers of Bihar, cater to the needs of urban consumers with the supply of hygienically packed milk at affordable rates and offer job vistas as well, Bihar State Co-operative Milk Producers Federation Limited (COMFED) started off sometime in 1983. It has been formed as an implementing agency of "Operation Flood" programme on the lines of ANAND milk co-operative. To make women folks join the mainstream of dairy industry has been one of the many factors contributing to the formation of COMFED.
The Dairy Co-operative Society (DCS) makes up a total quantity of 4.89 lakh litres of milk per day. Nearly 5,106 numbers of DCS have been organised till March 2005 and membership of dairy co-operative societies has gone up to 2.41 lakh in 2003-2004. It has been found that around 15 per cent of members of co-operative societies are women, 9 per cent belong to scheduled castes and tribes and 48 per cent are underprivileged group. The COMFED dairies include the Jamshedpur Dairy, Ranchi Dairy, Bokaro Dairy, Gaya Dairy and Bhagalpur Dairy.
The co-operative society gives priority to upgradation of skills in implementing dairy development programme. Regular training is imparted to milk producers, management committee members, staff of dairy co-operative society and milk unions hosted at COMFED training centre, Patna. There are as many as 11 dairy plants with a handling capacity of 7,60,000 litres per day, 10 chilling centres and 7 bulk coolers with facilities for chilling up to 2,09,000 litres per day. The capital city of Bihar has an ice cream plant that can produce ice cream of 3000 litres to meet the demand of the twin states of Bihar and Jharkhand. COMFED comprises three cattle-feed plants for meeting the cattle-feed of the dairy co-operative societies. Nearly 5 lakh litres of liquid milk has been sold daily in 2004-2005 and the milk products are marketed across 84 cities through 5,500 outlets in the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. In order to improve the financial viability of dairies, widen the product mix that will serve a large cross-section of consumers and improve the disposal of milk procured by DCS, the dairies have begun the making of value-added and fresh milk products that include milk-based products and sweets. Sold in the brand name of Sudha, the product mix comprises ghee, table butter, ice cream, dahi, sweet lassi, salted lassi, flavoured milk, peda, kalakand, gulab jamun, rasgulla, paneer, milk cake, balushahi, sudha surbhi, khoa mithai and paneer bhujia. Some new products are Sudha honey, cow milk, kesar peda and kaju barfi. A dairy plant will be coming up with an investment of Rs 27 crore to conserve surplus milk solids. Plans are on the cards for a milk packaging station at Kolkata at an estimated cost of Rs 8.70 crore and a powder plant at Muzaffarpur at a cost of Rs 5.0 crore.
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