Amul to begin international auction of its dairy products soon

AHMEDABAD: Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, the maker of Amul brand milk products, will begin offering its select products to global buyers through an international auction site from next month.

"We will begin selling our SMP (Skimmed Milk Products) and WMP (Whole Milk Powder) products through Global Dairy Trade platform from June this year. It will provide us direct access to 900 globally big customers and also help fetch better price for our produce," Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) Managing Director R S Sodhi told PTI.

"Internationally, the market for SMP & WMP products is improving day by day...exports are equally getting lucrative," he said.

With this, India joins the league of Europe, the US, Australia and New Zealand in selling dairy products through the international auction route, where prices stand at record highs.

Amul, which is among the top five fast moving consumer brands in India, will begin competing with international dairy brands like Europe's Arla, US-based Dairy America and Australia's Murray Goulburn.

It would also be competing with New Zealand's Fonterra, which owns GDT, to sell through the auction route.

GDT is an auction platform for internationally-traded commodity dairy products. It has become the leading price reference indicator for the products traded.

GDT trading events are conducted as ascending-price clock auctions run over several bidding rounds. In each auction, a specified maximum quantity of each product is offered for sale at a pre-announced starting price.