Meenesh Shah says that organised dairy players currently handle only a limited share of surplus milk reaching the market, leaving a large portion within the unorganised ecosystem
As concerns around milk adulteration continue to persist in India’s vast dairy ecosystem, expanding the organised dairy network through wider cooperative coverage could play a critical role in addressing the issue, Meenesh Shah, Chairman, National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), said on Tuesday.
Shah noted that while organised dairy players have stringent quality checks and standard operating procedures in place, a significant share of milk continues to flow through unorganised channels, where adulteration remains a bigger challenge.
“Adulteration is a big challenge for the dairy sector. Although, it is not such a big challenge for the organised players. When you take the products from the organised players, like Mother Dairy, Amul, Nandini, we have the standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place and we check the raw milk quality for the adulteration. We check all our products before they leave for the market,” Shah explained, while addressing an event of Mother Dairy, of which he is a chairman.
Cooperative Push To Formalise Milk Supply
Highlighting the scale of the challenge, Shah pointed out that organised dairy players currently handle only a limited share of surplus milk reaching the market, leaving a large portion within the unorganised ecosystem.
“The organised players handle just maybe 35 to 40 per cent of the milk which is coming to the market as surplus, after leaving the consumption of farmers themselves. Therefore, the biggest challenge for the sector is to control that 60 to 65 per cent milk which is going to the unorganised sector,” he said.
To address this, Shah said the ongoing ‘White Revolution II’ initiative, being undertaken under the aegis of the Ministry of Cooperation and the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying, aims to deepen dairy cooperative penetration across villages.
“We are going to cover 75,000 villages with dairy societies. More and more milk will come to the organised market because cooperatives will procure this milk. Farmers will also get better market access and prices, and to some extent, this will mitigate the challenge of adulteration,” he added.
White Revolution II As Long-term Fix
Linking the challenge of adulteration to structural gaps in milk procurement, Shah said the ongoing ‘White Revolution II’ initiative is aimed at bringing more milk into the organised ecosystem by expanding cooperative coverage in underserved regions.
Under the programme, the government plans to set up 75,000 new dairy cooperative societies and strengthen over 46,000 existing ones over the next five years. The broader objective of increasing milk procurement by dairy cooperatives by nearly 50 per cent to 1,007 lakh kg per day by 2028–29. The initiative is also expected to deepen dairy penetration in uncovered villages, improve farmer market access and strengthen the organised milk supply chain.
“We are going to set up more dairy cooperative societies at the individual village level. Out of about two lakh societies for PACS, dairy and fisheries, 75,000 villages we are going to cover with dairy societies. More and more milk will come to the organised market because cooperatives will procure this milk,” Shah said.
He added that the move is expected to improve farmer remuneration while also addressing quality concerns. “Farmers in those villages will get market access and better prices, and to some extent, this will also mitigate the challenge of adulteration,” Shah noted.
Rising Adulteration Concerns
Shah’s remarks come at a time when concerns around adulterated and counterfeit dairy products have resurfaced across several states. In recent months, food safety authorities have busted multiple fake dairy manufacturing units producing adulterated paneer, khoya and milk-based products using synthetic ingredients and chemicals, raising fresh questions around quality controls in the unorganised segment.
In one of the recent cases, authorities in Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh busted an alleged fake paneer manufacturing unit and seized around 16 quintals of adulterated paneer, which officials claimed was being manufactured using detergent and other harmful substances.
Similarly, in Surat, food safety officials uncovered a large-scale fake paneer racket and seized over 1,400 kilogram of suspected adulterated paneer, reportedly worth nearly Rs 28 lakh, allegedly made using chemicals and low-grade ingredients.
The issue has also drawn increased regulatory attention. Last year, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) directed states and Union Territories to intensify surveillance and enforcement against adulteration and misbranding of milk and milk products, including paneer, khoya and ghee.
Sustainability As A Central Theme
Shah also underscored the need to balance India’s rapid dairy growth with long-term sustainability, noting that the country’s position as the world’s largest milk producer brings with it greater responsibility.
“India is the largest producer in the world. Last year we produced 250 million metric tonne of milk,” Shah said. “If the growth rate continues as we are today, between 5 to 6 per cent CAGR, in the next few years we will be producing almost one-third of the global milk production,” he noted.
Against this backdrop, Shah stressed that growth in the dairy sector must be accompanied by “innovation, responsibility and long-term sustainability.” Calling dairy one of the few sectors where sustainability is “intrinsically embedded across the entire value chain”, he said NDDB increasingly sees sustainability as a continuous process rather than a standalone initiative.
