Revenue dips as Markfed export hit by Qatar crisis VERKA TO ENTER DELHI MARKET
JALANDHAR: The ongoing conflict between Qatar and other Gulf countries has hit the business of Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited, or Milkfed, which has seen a decline in export revenue in the past four months.
Export of ready-to-eat products branded ‘Sohna’ earned revenue of Rs 6.8 crore from April 1 to December 31, 2017, while the figure stood at Rs 9.8 crore for 2016 for the state agency.
Officials said Dubai is the top consumer among Arab nations and most of the supply goes via Qatar. The Gulf countries are home to 8 million Indians, who are chief consumers of these Indian products .
“The demand of saag and other products is on the rise, but our overall revenue has affected following a conflict between Qatar and other Gulf nations, as supply has been cut to these countries in the last four months,” said HS Bains, Markfed’s chief manager for international trade.
The four-month data shows this. Markfed earned Rs 2.5 crore from export in September to December 2017, as compared to Rs 5.23 crore during the same time in 2016.
It was in June that Saudi Arabia and its key allies Egypt, UAE and Bahrain had cut ties with Qatar over the latter’s alleged support to terrorism.
General manager Sachin Garg, however, said that export to other countries including Canada, Australia, United Kingdom and Italy is on the rise. “We have started exporting saag and some other products to Hong Kong from this year.”
Chairman Amarjit Singh Samra said, “Non-resident Indians, mostly Punjabis, really like our products and the demand is increasing rapidly.”
These items are also available online as Markfed has tied up with online retailer Amazon since March last year. CHANDIGARH: The Punjab State Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited, or Milkfed, has decided to launch its Verkabranded fresh milk and milk products in the Delhi market.
The decision was taken at a meeting of top officers of the cooperative department on Thursday, where additional chief secretary (cooperation) and Milkfed chairman DP Reddy, and Milkfed managing director Manjit Singh Brar were present. In Delhi, Verka will compete with dominant player Mother Dairy as well as Amul, and targets selling 1 lakh litres of milk by the year-end.
Reddy said 2017 was a watershed year for Milkfed and milk procurement saw a spike by 30%. “A new ice-cream plant with a capacity of 10,000 litres a day was completed, and a 60 MT fermented dairy plan project was started at the Mohali plant.” He added that upgrade of the milk powder plant at Jalandhar and automated dairy project at Amritsar are expected to be completed this year.
SAUDI ARABIA AND ITS KEY ALLIES CUT TIES WITH QATAR, THROUGH WHICH MILKFED SUPPLIES TO GULF, OVER ITS ALLEGED SUPPORT TO TERROR