Karnataka: Amul vs Nandini row takes centrestage in poll season

Brand Nandini, run by Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), procures milk from around 2.6 million families in Mysuru and Central Karnataka regions through 16 district cooperatives and provides milk and other dairy products to every part of Karnataka and also to neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala.

Ahead of the Karnataka assembly elections in May, a major controversy is brewing with the Congress alleging that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is trying entry of Gujarat-based milk cooperative Amul to “strangulate” Nandini, Karnataka’s milk cooperative, a charge vehemently denied by the latter.

Congress alleging that the ruling BJP is trying entry of Gujarat-based milk cooperative Amul to “strangulate” Nandini (ANI)

Brand Nandini, run by Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), procures milk from around 2.6 million families in Mysuru and Central Karnataka regions through 16 district cooperatives and provides milk and other dairy products to every part of Karnataka and also to neighbouring Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Kerala.

It all started when Union home minister Amit Shah in December 2022 spoke about the collaboration between Amul and Nandini to improve the income of rural households, especially women, as it happened in Gujarat. The controversy, which had died down since then, got a new spark when Amul announced through a tweet on April 5 its plan to enter Karnataka, which has been facing a shortage of milk products, especially ghee, for some time.

The outrage of Amul’s possible entry into Karnataka intensified on Monday when Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar visited a Nandini store in Hassan and purchased a few products as a show of support for the brand.

Shivakumar called Nandini “a symbol of self-esteem of farmers and Kannadigas”.

“The BJP government is trying to hijack the Nandini brand which is a symbol of self-esteem of our farmers and Kannadigas.” Shivakumar said.

Protests were held by pro-Kannada groups in Bengaluru and Mysuru on Monday, opposing the Gujarat giant’s entry into the Karnataka market.

The social media platforms were abuzz with Kannadigas strongly denouncing the move, with many using hashtags such as ‘#SaveKMF’ and ‘#AmulGoBack’ trending on Twitter.

The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) started its operations in 1974, almost 28 years after the first cooperative dairy was set up in Kaira in Gujarat’s Anand district by Congress leader Tribhuvan Das Patel, leading to the formation of Amul.

While Amul is the far largest seller of milk products in the country, KMF is a prominent brand and rules the market in southern states equally, and is the second largest dairy co-operatives in the country, after Amul.

According to the KMF website, it works with over 14,000 milk cooperative societies and 14 milk unions, procures over 8.4 million kgs of milk per day, and pays ₹17 crore to farmers daily.

‘Nandini’ - the brand under which it operates, has been endorsed by prominent Kannada actors, including Dr Rajkumar, Upendra and Puneeth Rajkumar, without charging any fees.

While Amul, on average, procured 27 million litres of milk every day in 2022-23, KMF procured 9 million litres of milk per day.

In the past year, Amul has increased milk prices thrice since August 2022 resulting in an overall hike of ₹7 per litre. In contrast, Nandini has not increased the milk prices in Karnataka even though it has reduced per packet quantity. For instance, the earlier one-litre pack has 950 ml of milk. As a result, the milk price in Karnataka is one of the lowest in the country.

While Amul is looking to foray into Karnataka, experts said the pricing could pose a challenge, as Nandini is the cheapest in the country.

Amul sells one litre of toned milk at ₹54 in Delhi, while Nandini’s price is ₹39 per litre in Bengaluru. Amul Gold - the popular full cream milk is sold at ₹66 per litre in the national capital, while Nandini’s price is just ₹50 a litre after it reduced the pack size recently.

Amidst political backlashes, Nandini is reportedly facing another challenge of scarcity of milk products. Last month, KMF officials said the cooperative is facing a supply shortage, owing to an increase in demand for milk and cases of the lumpy skin disease in cattle.

The Bangalore Milk Union Limited (BAMUL), part of KMF, said milk production has come down in the state due to the onset of summer. However, the Karnataka State Hotels Association (KSHA) alleged that an “artificial scarcity” of Nandini products was created to “favour” Amul in Karnataka.

“There is a reduction in milk production in the state from about 90 lakh litres a day to about 75 lakh litres a day, due to which some people may be facing scarcity. There is nothing unusual about it,” P Nagaraju, director of BAMUL, said.

Nagaraju said Nandini sends 250,000 litres of milk to Mumbai, 150,000 litres to Hyderabad and another batch of milk to Andhra Pradesh daily for supply to school children of those states. The milk production is now improving, he added.

However, KSHA president Chandrashekhar Hebbar alleged, “There is an attempt to create scarcity of Nandini in favour of Amul. We get to know this. Nandini Ghee, which is of superior quality, is not available these days”.

Meanwhile, farmer leader Kurubur Shanthakumar refuted claims of a shortage in milk supply and said that farmers are turning to private and multinational companies due to better prices.

“After the WTO agreement, multinational companies entered the market. This has resulted in weakening the KMF and reduced its supplies. There is no scarcity of milk. The farmers are opting for companies offering better prices. The current controversy is only politically motivated. Both the Congress and the BJP are equally responsible,” Shanthakumar alleged.

The political slugfest gained momentum on April 5, when Amul took to Twitter to announce its plan to enter the Bengaluru market to supply milk and curd through online portals.

“A new wave of freshness with milk and curd is coming to Bengaluru. More information coming soon.#LaunchAlert,” Amul tweeted.

However, the debate began late last year when Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited Mandya and hinted at a merger between KMF and Amul, which raised eyebrows.

Shah had said that if Amul and Nandini worked together, they would be primary dairies in three years, inviting a spate of retaliatory hashtags from the locals.

After Amul’s latest tweet, the conflict escalated, with the Opposition Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) or JD (S) accusing the ruling BJP government of destroying the homegrown brand.

Opposition leaders, including Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy, fumed at the announcement and called on CM Bommai to stop Amul from “entering through the back door”, and protect the interest of the state’s dairy farmers.

“As Kannadigas vocally opposed the idea of merger, Amul is now trying to gain backdoor entry. Gujarat-based Amul had previously tried to enter Karnataka’s market to sell milk and curd. We had not allowed it to happen then, but now @BJP4Karnataka is welcoming them with open arms,” Siddaramaiah said.

The attacks from the Opposition came despite Bommai clarifying the situation on Saturday in this regard.

Calling Nandini the pride of Karnataka, and stating that the government had taken all kinds of measures to make it number one at the national level, Bommai said, “Nandini’s market reach is wide, there is no need to fear Amul.”

BJP leaders, including cooperation minister ST Somashekar and health minister Dr K Sudhakar, among others, were quick to react to the issue, refuting claims of merger and Congress’s accusation that the BJP was attempting to “weaken the state’s cooperative milk federation”.

“There’s no proposal to merge Nandini and Amul, let alone the two making dairy products together. Only those who don’t know enough about the KMF can say wrong things,” Somashekar said.

The current political slugfest over Nandini also has scope for political implications with assembly elections around the corner. Most milk producers are from the Old Mysuru region, dominated by the Vokkaligas, where the JD(S) and the Congress have a stronghold.

Central Karnataka district Davanagere also has a big chunk of milk producers, where the Congress is said to be strong.

Milk politics has an impact in close to 60 of the 224 assembly seats in Karnataka, which is going to polls on May 10.

Unlike Gujarat, where the milk cooperatives are with the BJP, most of the cooperatives in Karnataka are still controlled by Congress.

Political experts said that Congress is trying to make Amul versus Nandini a political issue to retain its vote bank among 2.5 million families that supply milk to KMF.

Political analyst A Narayana said that, unlike other issues in the past, like the merger of banks, which saw strong opposition, especially in coastal Karnataka in 2019, the ‘Amul vs Nandini’ controversy has an appeal across the state and could impact its electoral prospects.

“It has an appeal beyond coastal Karnataka, where the BJP has a stronghold. It has been taken in a bigger way by Kannada organisations as an identity issue, and this is going to create insecurity over livelihood among the farmers,” Narayana said.

“In case the BJP retracts, even then, there will be an impact since the people will lose trust in the party. The BJP might control the damage to some extent, but the damage has been done,” he added.