Who Owns ‘Nandini,’ the Brand That Will Be Supplying Ghee for Tirupati Laddus?

After the row over the adulteration of laddus at Tirupati temple with animal fat and other adulterants, the Andhra Pradesh government has now changed the company that will be supplying ghee used for the laddus.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) will now use ‘Nandini’ ghee for its laddus. The supply order has also been given to the company.

Similar to the popularity of Amul and Mother Dairy milk products in North India, ‘Nandini’ is a household name in South India. ‘Nandini’ is Karnataka’s biggest milk brand, also famous in neighbouring states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra and Goa.

The ‘Nandini’ brand is owned by the Karnataka Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation Limited (KMF), the country’s second-largest dairy cooperative after Gujarat’s Amul.

How Did KMF Which Produces ‘Nandini’ Products Start?

The first dairy cooperative opened in the Kodagu district of Karnataka in 1955. During those days, there was no trend of packaged milk. Farmers used to deliver milk to every house themselves. There was also a shortage of milk. By the 1970s, emphasis was given on increasing milk production. In January 1970, the milk revolution started, which was called the ‘White Revolution’. The World Bank also came up with many schemes related to dairy projects.

In 1974, the Karnataka government formed the Karnataka Dairy Development Corporation (KDCC) in the state to implement the World Bank’s dairy projects. Ten years later, in 1984, the name of the Dairy Development Corporation was changed to Karnataka Milk Federation.

Around this time, the company also launched packaged milk and other products in the market under the brand name ‘Nandini’. In time, ‘Nandini’ became the most popular brand in Karnataka and established its hold in the neighboring states as well.

How Does KMF Function?

The Karnataka Milk Federation leads 15 dairy unions of the state. These includes Bengaluru Cooperative Milk Union, Kolar Cooperative Milk Union, Mysore Cooperative Milk Union and several others. These dairy unions buy milk from every village through district level Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS) and then deliver it to KMF.

According to information on the Karnataka Milk Federation website, the dairy cooperative buys more than 86 lakh kilos of milk every day from 26 lakh farmers residing in 24,000 villages.

The most striking feature of the Karnataka Milk Federation is that it makes daily payments to most of its milk supliers, who are mostly small farmers and milk producers. According to the federation, it pays more than Rs 28 crores to milk producers every day. The Karnataka Milk Federation has a total of 15 units, where it processes and packages milk. Following this, it engages in marketing and sales.

Where Does Nandini Stand in Comparison to Amul?

The Karnataka Milk Federation manufactures more than 148 products like milk, curd, butter, paneer, cheese, flavored milk, chocolate, rusk, cookies, bread, namkeen, ice cream under the brand ‘Nandini’.

In 2022-23, the total turnover of KMF was Rs 19,784 crores. On the other hand, the turnover of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, which owns Amul, was around Rs 61,000 crores. Currently, Karnataka Administrative Service officer MK Jagdish is the Managing Director and CEO of KMF.

Why is Nandini at loggerheads with Amul?

Amul and Nandini are competitors. Last year, when Amul decided to enter the retail market of Karnataka, it led to a major uproar. The Karnataka Milk Federation claimed that there has always been an unwritten agreement between the two cooperatives that they will not enter each other’s market till they are able to meet their respective demands.

However, Amul claimed that the demand for milk in many cities of Karnataka, especially Bengaluru, is not being met and hence it has decided to sell milk through e-commerce platforms.