Chandigarh, August 22
Reiterating his firm commitment to further strengthen Cooperative Entities of the state, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann on Tuesday launched Verka Fruit Yogurt, One Litre Packing of Fresh Cream and Extended Shelf Life UHT milk.
During the launching ceremony here, the Chief Minister said that Milkfed’s core strength lies in procuring best quality milk and production of top quality milk products. He said that in order to ensure quality products, Milkfed has been investing heavily on setting up state of the art milk plants & milk testing equipments, so that the quality of every drop of milk is well checked in the entire value chain and safe products are delivered to consumers. Bhagwant Singh Mann informed that in order to provide safe and quality assured products to consumers, state of art infrastructure is being created at Verka Dairy Mohali with an outlay of Rs. 325 Crore under JICA thereby setting up New Milk Processing Unit of 5LLPD capacity with Value Added Product capacity of 50MTPD for Curd, 4MPTD for Ghee and 10MPTD for Butter.
Speaking about the expansion of Verka, the Chief Minister said that new products have been added in Verka’s kitty today with the launching of Fruit Yogurt in 100gm packing with three real fruit varieties namely Mango, Strawberry & Blueberry in 100 gm Cup, Fresh Cream in One Litre Pack with 120 days’ shelf life and Extended Shelf Life UHT milk with 90 days’ shelf life. He lauded the performance of Milkfed during the financial year 2022-23 & assured the dairy producers and consumers that Milkfed is committed to provide quality extension services to dairy farmers and delivery of quality milk and milk producers to consumers. He also assured full support to Milkfed Punjab in achieving its mission and vision. Bhagwant Singh Mann urged farmers to provide maximum quantity of Milk to Verka so that the entity cound be able to expand its base, besides offering lucrative rates to the milk producers.
The Chief Minister assured Milkfed of timely disbursement of budgetary provision of 100 crore financial assistance from Govt of Punjab so as to improve the procurement of milk and making the business dynamics at par with other states. Bhagwant Singh Mann appreciated the implementation of new BIS SNF formula by Milkfed, which is going to benefit the dairy farmers of Punjab in a long way and shall help them in competing with major dairy players of India.
The Chief Minister said that keeping in view of the demand of the market, Milkfed has been launching new milk products from time to time, which have been getting overwhelming response. He said that Milkfed is in the process of widening its reach on PAN India basis and launched fresh milk and milk products in Delhi & NCR markets. Apart from this, Milkfed is in the process of consolidating its presence in Delhi & NCR market by way of opening 30 Verka Milk Booths at various stations of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and 100 Milk Booths at prominent points on MCD Delhi’s land. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that stupendous efforts will also be made by Milkfed in reviving its old consolidated markets like Ahmadabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Jaipur.
Exuding confidence about the overwhelming response to Verka’s products, the Chief Minister said that Milkfed has recorded an annual increase of 9% in Packaged Milk, 32% in Curd, 30% in Lassi. 23% in Paneer and 21% in Kheer as compared to Financial Year 2021-22 during the Financial Year 2022-23.
On this occasion Chairman Milkfed Narinder Singh Shergill was also present.