Hassan/Bengaluru/Kalaburagi: Just over a week ago, a Kannada YouTube channel put out a video where blindfolded participants were made to taste Nandini and Amul ice creams to make light of the raging dairy controversy in Karnataka.
The five participants then gave their preferences of the vanilla flavoured ice cream in the video which has nearly 3 lakh views.
Here is the catch. Amul and Nandini ice cream come from the same factories, as the Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) sells half of its daily produce to the Gujarat-based cooperative. And the recipe is the same. Just branded differently.
“We produce around 20,000 litre of ice cream per day (at Hassan plant) and around 50 per cent of the ice cream produced is for Amul. We co-pack it for Amul. They then sell it in the name of Amul,” a senior executive at the Hassan plant told ThePrint.
Three such plants follow the same practice, but in varying quantities.
Travelling across Karnataka, Amul advertisements with pictures of ice cream is a common sight. The milk of choice, and availability, is Nandini.
The two brands have coexisted in Karnataka — one of the bigger milk producing states — for a long time until it became an election issue last December as Union minister Amit Shah said that Amul and Nandini should be merged.
Amul’s ad announcing that it was going to sell milk in Bengaluru further fuelled the opposition charge of a ‘sinister’ plot by the BJP to wipe out a brand that is an extension of the Kannada identity.
India’s largest cooperative Amul was identified as a ‘North Indian brand’ and given the spin that it was part of the larger ‘conspiracy’ by those imposing Hindi, Hindu and Hindutva.
But the issue has little resonance on the electoral battlefield.
“When big leaders address public gatherings, they may have mentioned this issue. But no candidate from any party has raised this issue when interacting with us,” says Harish G.S., a farmer in Gendehalli of Beluru.
‘Milk is like a salary’
Farmer B.S. Nagaraju, 42, has four cows, three are Sindhi cross and one native species, which graze in the pristine pastures of S. Bommadihalli just outside Belur in Hassan district. Most of his land runs along the state highway. Nagaraju grows coffee, pepper, paddy, jowar and ragi in his total holding of around 12 acres.
His cows in total give just around 10 litres daily, depending on the season. Cows produce higher milk during the rainy season, and this is nearly halved during summer and winter as availability of feed drops.
Three years ago, a small dairy was set up near his home by KMF as part of its cooperative expansion, giving him the option to sell the surplus milk. “Earlier, we used most of the milk for our personal usage…making butter, ghee, buttermilk. But now since the dairy came up, I sell it there,” he says.
Minus the cost of the feed, about Rs 2,400 for two bags in a month, Nagaraju makes around Rs 10,000.
About 3 km away, Shankre Gowda, 42, bought three cows ranging between Rs 20,000 and Rs 23,000 each. He has been a farmer for nearly 30 years but milk brings in additional income. “It’s like a salary,” Gowda says.
His milk drop-off point is Birana Godu, about 1 km away from his home.
In drought-prone Karnataka, dairy farming offsets the losses from agriculture and provides an additional income for farming communities to support themselves. Selling to a private player is not looked down upon as long as the price is right, farmers say.
KMF also has a vast network compared to the limited resources of private players. “Private players procure at a higher price and sell also at a higher price,” the KMF official says.
But the convenience and robust network of KMF makes it a force to reckon with.
“There are around 40 houses in our village and we collect around 400-650 litre per day. Most people who drop milk here stay within 10 km,” Paramesh B.P. from Birana Godu village in Beluru says.
His wife, a director of the local cooperative society, is the main point person for the entire operation that takes place between 6 am and 7 am every day.
It is a daily affair but nothing to do with politics, milk producers here say.
“Nandini is good and let it stay. What is the point in changing that? But there is no connection between milk and elections. All farmer care is about dropping milk to the dairy and returning. No one has even bothered to look beyond this,” Nagaraju says.
“We want KMF and Nandini, but it has no connection with the way we vote. It has not even been mentioned by any candidate in our district, nor does it matter,” Paramesh says.
Producers have to drop off the milk within an hour of milking the cow and the van has to take it to the factory for chilling within three hours to maintain quality as the milk has to be of a certain temperature.
An analysis is conducted on spot to check for SNF (Solid-Non-Fat) and fat content that adds to the price. The cooperative gets Rs 32.50 per litre and additional 20 paise for each point of fat and SNF content.
In addition, the Karnataka government in 2008 announced a Rs 2 incentive per litre for milk producers to offset the agrarian crisis. The ‘Protsaha Dhana’ (financial incentive) was increased subsequently and stands at Rs 5 for all those who sell to KMF.
The price paid to cooperatives varies from union to union and the cost of retail milk is determined by the government in consultation with stakeholders and the KMF top body.
At around 4 am next day after collection, the milk van drops off sachets of the product at various agencies on the road side across thousands of locations in the state.
“We get around 100 litre of sachet milk each day and most of it is sold,” Keerthi, the 25-year-old owner of one such store, says.
Also Read: Karnataka dairy war will singe both Amul and Nandini by promoting anti-competitive ways
‘We sell what public wants’
In the city of Kalaburagi, Nandini franchise owners feel that Amul’ entry in the market will not hamper their prospects. In fact, they say that there is a demand for Amul products in the market.
Mohammad Moinuddin, who runs a Nandini franchise, cites the example of another dairy brand, Aarogya.
“When Aarogya came to the market, it had one plus one offer on milk packets. People bought in thousands. Thereafter, I paid Rs 80,000 deposit 80,000 to get the franchise. But my turn is yet to come,” Moinuddin says. “Aarogya milk is thicker. People prefer it for their children. But supply is scarce.”
Moinuddin, however, says that the rate of Nandini products is better. While Nandini milk sells for Rs 40 a litre, Aarogya is priced at Rs 57, he says.
Another Nandini franchise owner Nandini Jamdar says that there is no loss for the seller or producer. “We will sell what the public wants. If Amul comes in, we’ll have good sales,” she says.
Out of the 11.5 lakh litre collected from Hassan, Chikmagaluru and Kodagu districts, only 2 lakh satchels are sold in this region under its jurisdiction, the KMF Hassan official told The Print.
The rest are sold to dairies in Hyderabad and Kerala where the packaging is done and sold as Brand Nandini itself. The remaining milk is packaged in tetra packs (with longer shelf life) and sold to defence and retail. KMF also supplies milk for government welfare programmes in various states. The rest is converted into dairy products like curd, buttermilk, butter, ice cream and milk powder.
Though KMF sold to other private dairies in the past, it stopped doing this a few years ago, the official confirms.
‘Milk and politics’
Though there is politics within milk unions, it has rarely become an election issue.
During the KR Pete bypoll in December 2019, the BJP registered its first victory in Mandya district, the Vokkaliga heartland.
Local residents claim that the BJP devised a strategy of delivering milk to homes in the morning and placing money as bribe and a pamphlet of the candidate on the packet. When delivered, it was like taking the milk with a promise or “Halina Runa” as locals say.
The BJP has vehemently denied this allegation, but milk unions have a network that covers around 50 lakh people across the state.
KMF chairman and BJP MLA Balachandra Jarkiholi says he suspects the opposition was raking up the Amul versus Nandini issue to misguide voters by floating the merger theory as nearly 50 lakh people were involved directly or indirectly in the milk industry in Karnataka.
The Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers Federation Ltd (KMF) has a vast network spread over 22,000 villages with over 14,000 milk cooperatives, 14 milk unions and over 2.4 million milk producers. It purchases over 84 lakh kg of milk each day and makes payments in excess of Rs 17 crore as payments.
Kurien’s Midas touch
If the biographies of former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and the late Verghese Kurien are anything to go by, then the latter did help the growth of the quintessentially, Kannada brand.
Deve Gowda’s biographer Sugata Srinivasraju shares an interesting anecdote in an online interaction with @kkroundtables from the history books.
In 1996 when Deve Gowda was the PM, he met Kurian and sought his help in enhancing the capabilities of Nandini. “Kurian says that there can be only one Taj Mahal and that is in Anand,” Srinivasraju recalls.
The PM left disappointed. But when Gowda was boarding his flight, Kurian came running, apologised for the previous conversation and offered his help to build the brand.
Gowda’s elder son H.D. Revanna helmed affairs of the milk unions at that time and continues to wield significant influence to this day. The improvement of the brand had political benefits for the Gowda clan.
Back in 2023, the dairy row made national headlines, forcing the BJP on the backfoot.
“Already 16 to 18 different private and public sector brands are selling milk products in the state. But Nandini, due to its high quality, remains the most preferred brand in the market. So to say that Amul is a threat to Nandini is an insult to our home grown brand,” Karnataka health minister K. Sudhakar told reporters on 8 April.
Since then several BJP leaders have rubbished the Congress charges of imposing one brand over the other, attributing it more to a political strategy than concern for Nandini.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
Also Read: ‘No other option’ — behind Amul price revisions, a battle against soaring costs in Gujarat’s dairies