Amul is an Indian dairy cooperative, based at Anand in the state of Gujarat, Ind ia.

[2] The word Amul is derived from the Sanskrit word Amulya, meaning invaluabl e.[3] The co-operative is also sometimes referred to by the unofficial backronym : Anand Milk Union Limited. Formed in 1946, it is a brand managed by a cooperative body, the Gujarat Co-oper ative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), which today is jointly owned by 3. 03 million milk producers in Gujarat.[4] Amul spurred India's White Revolution, which made the country the world's larges t producer of milk and milk products.[5] In the process Amul became the largest food brand in India and has also ventured into markets overseas. Dr Verghese Kurien, founder-chairman of the GCMMF for more than 30 years (1973-2 006), is credited with the success of Amul.[6] Contents 1 2 3 4 History GCMMF today Company info The Three-tier "Amul Model" 4.1 Village Dairy Cooperative Society (VDCS) Union (Dugdh Sangh) 4.2 District Cooperative Milk Producers 4.3 State Cooperative Milk Federation (Federation) 5 Impact of the "Amul Model" 6 Achievements of the "Amul Movement" 7 Achievements of GCMMF 7.1 The Amul brand 8 Products 9 Mascot 10 Advertising 11 In popular culture 12 References 13 External links

History The Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Ltd. was registered on Dec ember 1, 1946 as a response to the exploitation of marginal milk producers by tr aders or agents of the only existing dairy, the Polson (brand) dairy, in the sma ll town of Anand (in Kaira District of Gujarat).[7] Milk Producers had to travel long distances to deliver milk, which often went sour in summer, to Polson. The prices of buffalo and cow milk were arbitrarily determined. Moreover, the gover nment at that time had given monopoly rights to Polson to collect milk from Anan d and supply it to Bombay city.[8][9] Angered by the unfair and manipulative trade practices, the farmers of Kaira app roached Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel under the leadership of local farmer leader Tri bhuvandas K. Patel. He advised them to form a cooperative and supply milk direct ly to the Bombay Milk Scheme instead of Polson (who did the same but gave them l ow prices).[10] He sent Morarji Desai to organise the farmers. In 1946, the milk farmers of the area went on a strike which led to the setting up of the coopera tive to collect and process milk.[9] Milk collection was also decentralized, as most producers were marginal farmers who could deliver atmost 1 2 litres of milk per day. Cooperatives were formed for each village too.[11] The Cooperative was further developed and managed by Dr.Verghese Kurien along wi th H.M. Dalaya. Dalaya's innovation of making skim milk powder from buffalo milk for the first time anywhere in the world and a little later, along with Kurien' s help, making it on a commercial scale,[12] led to the first modern dairy of th

e cooperative at Anand, which would successfully compete against established pla yers in the market. The trio's (T. K. Patel, Kurien and Dalaya's) success at the cooperative's dairy soon spread to Anand's neighbourhood in Gujarat, and within a short span, five unions in other districts Mehsana, Banaskantha, Baroda, Sabarkantha and Surat were set up.[9] In order to combine forces and expand the market while saving on adv ertising and avoid competing against each other, the GCMMF, an apex marketing bo dy of these district cooperatives was set up in 1973. The Kaira Union which had the brand name of Amul with it since 1955, transferred it to GCMMF.[13] GCMMF today GCMMF is India's largest food products marketing organisation[14] . It is a stat e level apex body of milk cooperatives in Gujarat, which aims to provide remuner ative returns to the farmers and also serve the interest of consumers by providi ng affordable quality products. GCMMF markets and manages the Amul brand. From m id-1990s Amul has entered areas not related directly to its core business. Its e ntry into ice cream was regarded as successful due to the large market share it was able to capture within a short period of time primarily due to the price diffe rential and the brand name. It also entered the pizza business, where the base a nd the recipes were made available to restaurant owners who could price it as lo w as 30 rupees per pizza when the other players were charging upwards of 100 rup ees. Company info The GCMMF is the largest food products marketing organisation of India. It is th e apex organization of the Dairy Cooperatives of Gujarat. Over the last five and a half decades, Dairy Cooperatives in Gujarat have created an economic network that links more than 3.1 million village milk producers with millions of consume rs in India[citation needed] . These cooperatives collect on an average 9.4&nbsp [citation needed] million litres of milk per day from their producer members, more than 70% of who m are small, marginal farmers and landless labourers and include a sizeable popu lation of tribal folk and people belonging to the scheduled castes.[citation nee ded] The turnover of GCMMF (AMUL) during 2010 11 was INR 97.74 billion (US$1.85 billion) . It markets the products, produced by the district milk unions in 30 dairy plan ts. The farmers of Gujarat own the largest state of the art dairy plant in Asia Mo ther Dairy, Gandhinagar, Gujarat which can handle 2.5 million litres of milk per d ay and process 100 MTs of milk powder daily.[citation needed] On 18 Aug 2012, Vipul Chaudhary of Mehsana district's milk cooperative was elect ed chairman of GCMMF, following a court's intervention.[15]