Thanks to the three-phased implementation of ‘Operation Flood’ between 1970 and 1996, India is the world’s largest producer of milk, having surpassed the United States in 1998. Milk production has witnessed annual growth of around 5.5%, with output in 2020-21 at an estimated 208 million tonne. According to National Dairy Development Board estimates, 52% of milk produced in India is considered a ‘marketable surplus’ and 22-23% is handled by organised dairies such as cooperatives and private players, with the share of organised players increasing steadily because of rising preference for quality milk and other dairy products.
Sensing an opportunity in the market for ‘pure’ milk, Kishore Indukuri, an alumnus of IIT, Kharagpur and the University of Massachusetts, came back to Hyderabad, his home town, after a six-year stint with Intel. In 2013, he set up Sid’s Farm, arranging funds on his own, with a herd size of 20 cows and buffaloes and started to supply milk directly to consumers in Hyderabad. It currently procures around 27,000 litres of milk daily from farmers around Hyderabad.
“We test milk sourced from farmers for the presence of urea, sugar, glucose, starch, peroxide, baking soda, caustic soda, formalin, melamine, and 3 classes of antibiotics,” Indukuri, founder and MD, says. The firm also tracks fat and solid not fat (SNF) content in milk, and conducts the Methylene Blue Dye Reduction Test, considered the gold standard for assessing raw milk’s quality.
The dairy start-up has products such as whole cow’s milk, whole buffalo’s milk, skim milk, cow’s butter, cow’s ghee, buffalo’s butter, buffalo’s ghee, cow’s curd, buffalo’s curd, and natural paneer in its basket. “Initially, when I was looking for quality milk, we found there were not enough players in the segment. Thus, we thought of focussing on the quality aspect of milk,” he says.
Sid’s Farm products are aimed at the premium milk market which is estimated at around one lakh litres daily in Hyderabad, and at around five lakh litres and eight lakh litres in Bengaluru and Delhi- NCR, respectively. In case of non-delivery of milk, the company redelivers to the consumer the same day. “If a customer has a quality issue, we get the milk tested to prove its purity,” Indukuri says, adding that his milk products are at least 25% more expensive than regular brands.
Sid’s Farm’s products are booked through an app and also available through apps like Big Basket, Supr Daily, Swiggy and Reliance Milk Basket. From a turnover of Rs 44 crore in 2020-21, the firm’s revenues reached Rs 64.5 crore in 2021-22. It aims to procure more than 50,000 litres of milk in the current fiscal.
