GCMMF to set up a robotic dairy facility in India

Indian Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the marketer of the Amul brand of milk and dairy products, is set to open a new robotic dairy facility at Virar, Mumbai, India, with an investment of Rs1.6bn ($29.7m).

Spanning an area of about 11 acres, the Virar plant will be the sixth facility for Amul in India.

The plant will feature robots, which will perform operations such as conveying of crates and filling of pouches in crates.

The robots will be controlled through a centralised computer monitoring system.

In order to ensure that the products are free from human contact, the high-speed packing machines will be integrated with online check weighers and robotic operations.

The plant will have the capacity to process 800,000 litres per day of milk, 150,000 litres of buttermilk and 5,000 litres of curd.

The new facility, which will also feature a rain water harvesting system as well as an ice cream unit with a capacity of 125,000 litres per day, is expected to open in February.

Amul Dairy managing director Rahul Kumar was quoted by The Times of India as saying that this will be the first dairy plant with a fully automatic traffic management system using robots for milk packing operations.

The co-operative plans to source up to 200,000 litres of milk locally by setting up co-operative services around the Virar area, in order to support milk supply to the facility.

GCMMF produces and markets food products in India, providing butter, cheese, ethnic sweets, fat milk, toned milk, fresh cream, ghee, infant milk, milk powders, sweetened condensed milk, and curd products.

The company also offers ice creams, desserts, chocolates and confectionery, brown beverages, milk drinks, and milk food through retail parlours in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Baroda, Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Surat.