PETpla.net Insider 04 / 2017

BOTTLING / FILLING PET planet Insider Vol. 18 No. 04/17 www.petpla.net 26 India’s dairy industry grows – with PET White revolution Fifteen years ago India was responsible for one-tenth of the world’s total milk production; it now accounts for one-sixth of total global milk output. Current milk production in India is 116 million tonnes a year; the country’s 12 th five-year plan aims at lifting that output to 150 million tonnes or so by 2017. According to figures from VDMA India (German Engineering Fed- eration, India), milk production in the country is growing at 4% per annum, which is well ahead of the world aver- age of 2.1%. PET has now estab- lished itself as the packaging mate- rial of choice, ahead of traditional solutions including HDPE, pouches, Tetrapack and glass. At the 45 th India International Dairy Conference, held in February 2017 in Mumbai, Mr RK Gera, AVP – Business Development for the PET Division of Reliance Industries Ltd, one of India’s larg- est private-sector companies, gave a presentation to explain how that shift had happened. The story begins with the launch of India’s “White Revolution”, which was also known as “Operation Flood”. This was a three-phase plan, oper- ated by the National Dairy Develop- ment Board, to revitalise India’s dairy production and make it self-sufficient in milk. The program was so success- ful that, by 1998, India was the world’s largest milk producer. The project attracted international attention and India is expected to continue to play a major role in the world’s dairy indus- try in coming years. It is expected that global milk production will rise to 867 MMT (million metric tonnes) – up 26% from the current level of 714 MMT. India’s milk production is currently growing at a CAGR (com- pound annual growth rate) of 4%; at a projected rate of 4.5%, it is expected to reach 180 MMT by 2020. This will increase its share of world milk production from 16% to 21%; in line with the country’s population, which is approximately one-fifth of the world’s total (VDMA).