Drink Asia July August 2019 | Page 34

Drink Wrap VALUE ADDED DAIRY PRODUCTS: THE GAME CHANGER IN THE DAIRY INDUSTRY By : SAMARTH SETIA - CEO & Co-Founder, Mr. Milkman T he value-added market has taken the dairy industry by storm. As the spending capacity of Indians is increasing, so is their willingness to buy healthier, super-foods which we like to call as value-added products. Value-added products in the dairy industry are products like cheese, paneer, ghee, yoghurt, pro-biotic drinks etc. These are products which have been created by alteration and enhancement via additives, segregation etc. of liquid milk. Adaptation of various methods to create a more profitable product out of milk has allowed dairies and FMCG companies to make good revenue out of a mostly loss-making SKU, liquid milk. Magnitude of production steadily increasing While packaged liquid milk continues to remain a key driver in the Indian Industry, value-added products are promising growth of 15 per cent to 20 per cent year on year that has varied products like cheese, UHT milk, curd, baby foods, ice-cream, butter, flavoured milk and dairy whitener. The Rs. 25,000 crore value-added dairy products industry is set to outpace liquid milk sales by 2021, as per a Crisil report. End consumers, in addition to milk, tend to buy the value-added products of the same brand, which adds to the Dairy’s sales. As the production and consumption of milk is increasing in India, so is the opportunity to sell these value-added products to an existing, loyal customer. mom and pop shop to save time and effort. The organised sector is realising the dire need to pull up its socks with new international firms entering the market to capture the increasing demand from the Indian Consumers, leading to increased competition and more inelastic demand. Healthier Lifestyle The Time Factor Families today have very different dynamics than 5-10 years ago. People today have very little time in their lives for activities like setting curd at home, make ghee or homemade butter. As lives are getting faster, people are getting busier. The simplest of items like curd and lassi which we have seen being made at home, are now purchased from the nearby As the production and consumption of milk is increasing in India, so is the opportunity to sell these value- added products to an existing, loyal customer Drink Asia 34 July-August 2019 It has been noticed that Indian consumers are increasingly getting health conscious and that the value-added dairy products industry is seeing a marginal growth. A change in consumer mindsets has led to various changes. Lifestyle alterations has led to an increase in the demand