Dr Rahul Srivastava
It was summer of 1996, when I saw first food processing laboratory in my school at Azamgarh, a district in Eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. That lab was established to assist students/entrepreneurs in food processing. I still remember many such government schemes and programs to support rural and cottage industry in villages and smaller cities. Their results were mixed; in some states it flourished while in others, no major changes happened. These successes and failures depend on many sociocultural factors in different Indian states. Unfortunately Milk and meat products were ignored part of these food processing labs/units which were mainly focusing on pickle, jam and ketchup etc.
Why not livestock products?
Biased approach and wilful ignorance towards value added livestock products technologies may be the reason at that time. Traditional sweet shops were the only destination of surplus milk, apart from local distribution of milk.
Consumers also opted to purchase fresh meat just after slaughter from butcher rather than processed value added meat products. Even today there is no work in livestock product marking in the apex institute of Agriculture marketing National Institute of Agriculture Marketing. Indian dairy farmers and support systems also focus mainly on milk production enhancements. Amul and other cooperatives dominated the market with negligible small/local private dairies during than time. Competing with AMUL was distant dream by any local/regional players in last decade.
But now !
Things have changed significantly and local dairy farmers, entrepreneurs and milk processing units are coming with traditional and innovative products for their tech savvy consumers at premium prices.
The milk distribution also have changed significantly.
And what about meat and meat products?
During 1990’s, it was at a different extreme end. Only male members of families went for meat purchases in Uttar Pradesh. Butcheries were on the bank of water bodies in very unhygienic condition.
It may be due to sociocultural differences because during my stay in Bangalore, Karnataka, I experienced very hygienic butcheries/ meat shop in cities where women also used to purchase meat. Still processed and frozen meat products were not in demand in last decade.
But what now ?
It’s a burgeoning market where fast paced society need value added meat products at their doorstep. And these things are happening.
So what are the factors driving these changes in milk and meat products ?
There may be many reasons but as per my experiences, I have listed few factors which are affecting significantly this livestock product’s market.
1. Economical smart phones
2. Economical/free data services
3. Many digital payment platform
4. Encouraging success stories of entrepreneurs and its accessibility through YouTube and social media
5. High paying capacity of consumers and their willingness to spend on quality milk and meat and their products
6. Fear about quality-Many reports on milk and meat adulteration
7. Unimaginable connectivity through Social media (Whatsapp and Facebook) in all categories of producers, consumers, traders, processors
8. Improved transport, delivery and distribution system
9. Lateral innovation: adoption of good supply chain and retail management practices of FMCG in this domain. Copying some of the best practices (if not all) of amazon, flipkart, eBay in milk and meat products procurement, processing, marketing and sales.
Many stories about pathetic conditions of dairy farmers and butcheries are evident but at the same time, many successful stories are equally present. Some dairy farmers had thrown milk on roads because of low milk prices and it became national news and at the same time many dairy farmers are fetching more than Rs 80 -100 per litre as well.
Milk and meat Processing units, trading and marketing companies in this domain proactively explores these major changes which resulted in more profit retention by them than producers/livestock farmers. Though livestock farmers and their cooperative/association/enterprises also tried to take advantage of these trends resulting into many small and medium enterprises in milk and meat processed products. This technology and niche marketing enabled revolution happened very silently.
The Way Ahead : As per my understanding, instead of milk and meat production enhancement, farmers need to focus more on profitability enhancement by adopting value added livestock products technologies, Information-Technology enabled marketing of their own products and making farmer’s producer organisation.
