Amul forays into edible oil business with launch of Janmay

Amul has entered the edible oils business with the launch of Janmay brand in Gujarat and hopes to provide remunerative prices to oilseed farmers, the company said in a statement.
“With an objective of providing stable and remunerative price to edible oilseed growers of Gujarat and become atmanirbhar in domestic edible oil production as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are launching a range of edible oil under the Janmay brand,” said RS Sodhi, MD of Amul. He added that the dairy cooperative has the experience of marketing mustard and other oils under the Dhara brand in the 1990s.

India is the world's largest importer of edible oils and spends around Rs 75,000 crore annually on edible oils import. “Currently, India is importing 65% of the total demand of edible oil. It is important to note that India had liberalised edible oils import despite having 90% self-sufficiency in 1990's at the cost of domestic producers,” he said.

The Palanpur-based Banaskantha District Cooperative Milk Producers Union of Amul will be processing 200 tonnes of oilseeds daily. It has already procured mustard and groundnut this year from its farmer’s networks and will be purchasing other oilseeds in the season ahead, said Sodhi.

He said Janmay means “newly born” or “fresh” and as the brand name suggested, the oil range is promoted as farm fresh. Janmay oil range includes groundnut oil, cottonseed oil, sunflower oil, mustard oil and soya bean oil, which will be sold across 30,000 stores in one litre pouch, five litre jar and 15 kg tin packing.

“Indigenous oils like groundnut oil, mustard oil contribute around 25% of total oil consumption in India. Our 3.6 million milk producers of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation are also farmers and some of whom cultivate oil seeds like groundnut, cottonseed, mustard etc in Gujarat,” he said.