Dairy News Flash July 27
Source: The Economic Times
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/foreign-trade/new-zealand-upset-overindias-silence-on-opening-farm-and-dairy-sector-to-imports/articleshow/15151870.cms
New Zealand upset over India’s silence on
opening farm and dairy sector to imports
NEW DELHI: The proposed free trade agreement between India and New Zealand has hit a speed breaker due
to the Centre's silence on opening the country's dairy and farm goods sector to imports. The broad-based free
trade agreement that proposes to cover goods, services and investment was supposed to be concluded by
March.
The agreement is important for India as it hopes to get more work visas for its professionals especially teachers,
healthcare providers, technicians, IT experts, architects and hospitality providers.
The commerce department has told a negotiating team from New Zealand that visited New Delhi recently that it
was yet to get a nod from the ministries of agriculture and food and therefore was not in a position to make any
offers in the agriculture and dairy sectors.
"The New Zealand team was disappointed and nothing significant could happen at the meeting as its offers in
areas important to New Delhi such as services is contingent upon what it gets in the farm and dairy sectors," a
government official told ET.
New Zealand was also not happy with the safeguard measures India has proposed to guard its agriculture sector
that will allow the country to increase import duties several times if there is a surge in imports.
The India-New Zealand free trade negotiation that began in 2009 have already missed March 2012 deadline set
when New Zealand Prime Minister John Key visited India last year. The eighth round of negotiations that took
place in New Delhi in end June was supposed to move the talks towards conclusion but got stuck on dairy
products.
"There is no way we could have made any offers in the dairy sector without taking in views of the agriculture and
food ministries as it is a very sensitive sector," the official said.
India has not yet given any significant concession in dairy to any of its other FTA partners including Singapore,
Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and the Asean.
The dairy industry, however, is central to New Zealand's economy and it is not willing to seal its offer in services
without commitments in the area.
"We are absolutely aware of the sensitivities that you have in your agriculture sector. But there is scope to work
around it," New Zealand trade minister Tim Groser had told ET earlier in an interview.
Source: Hindustan Times
Armed with degrees, women take shot at
dairy farming:
Women, armed with fancy degrees at that, are the least likely participants in a training programme
for dairy farming. Or so you thought!
Five young women have enrolled for the two-week programme of the Guru Angad Dev Veterinary
and Animal Sciences University's (GADVASU). The
goal is to take up the family business, and thus prove that sons are not the automatic heirs, in a state
shamed by widespread female foeticide.
"I and my sister have decided to join the dairy farming training course because after completing our
graduation, we did not get the job that we would have liked. So we thought that training in a
vocation will make us worthy of expanding our family trade, and also make us our own boss," said
Rajveer Kaur, a resident of Sherpur of Moga district, whose sister Mandeep Kaur is one of her four
siblings, all girls.
"Dairy farming is not seen as an educated women's preference, but it gives us an opportunity to be
entrepreneurs, like our father," added Mandeep.
Raikot's Rashpal Kaur, who has an MBA, has also joined: "I actually believe dairy is the best
profession for educated women. It allows you to stay at home, be your own boss, and it helps that
my family is already doing it. I was working with a private company after completing my MBA, but
one fine day I figured that dairy farming could fit rather well in my plans."
Dr Harish Verma, head of GADVASU's department of veterinary, animal husbandry and extension
education, said, "Dairy farming is all about management, and it's a very good sign that of the 50
participants, five are well-educated women."
Of the male participants, most are not very highly educated and are farmers looking to merely
enhance their knowledge.
The GADVASU management is so enthusiastic about the women joining the course that its has
waived their fee. "We just charge them the cost of the tea that we offer. They will not pay
the Rs. 500 fee," said Dr Verma.
"Besides teaching them basics and giving tips on how to buy milch animals, we will also take the
trainees to meet a successful dairy farmer.
http://record-eagle.com/archive/x1236708285/Slate-Why-do-we-drink-only-cows-milk;
Why do we drink only cows milk?
Walk down a dairy aisle and you may start to notice how little we've done with the whole concept.
Worldwide, there are about 6,000 mammal species, each with its own unique milk, but Americans
get at least 97 percent of all our dairy products from one animal. (That would be the cow.) Even at
my local Whole Foods, purveyors of exotica like shad roe and that kombucha stuff, there was only a
single brand of goat's milk. "EASY TO DIGEST!" reads the desperate carton.
Over at the cheese counter, the situation was a little better. Sheep's milk made a decent showing.
But was that it?
"There's a buffalo-milk mozzarella over in the refrigerator section, but yeah," the cheesemonger told
me. "I know a chef who's trying to make a pig's-milk cheese. I'm not sure how that's going."
Abroad, things are a little more diverse: Various foreigners drink the milk of the camel, the yak, the
water buffalo, the reindeer, the elk and a few other animals. With the exception of the horse, whose
milk is fermented and drunk in central Asia as the lightly alcoholic kumis, all dairy animals of any
importance are ruminants, a class of mammal whose four-chambered stomachs allow the
production of terrific amounts of milk from high-fiber, low-nutrient pasturage. Their large, graspable
teats make milking easy. (Inspect the belly of your cat or dog and you'll get an idea why we don't
milk our pets: lots of itty-bitty nipples.)
The three dairy animals familiar to Westerners were domesticated between 10,000 B.C. and 8000
B.C. in the Fertile Crescent. Goats and sheep were probably first, followed by cows. All three have
since been bred to improve temperament and output, but cows have responded the most
profoundly.
The ancestor of the European milch cow was the ox-like wild aurochs, which finally went extinct in
the 17th century. The aurochs could be fierce and stubborn, but a few centuries of breeding
transformed it into an animal so docile it will actually line up to be milked and so prolific that a single
cow produces around 100 pounds of milk a day. The cow's genome, for whatever reason, responded
readily to human dabbling. In this, cows are like wolves, from which we've created dog breeds as
different as Chihuahuas and Great Danes, and unlike cats, which all look and act pretty much the
same despite having been domesticated back in the Neolithic era. Given its genetic pliability, it was
probably inevitable that the cow would become a major dairy animal wherever it could survive.
In America, cows never had any real competition. The ice age had scoured the continent of all of its
large ruminants, with the exception of the bison, and Native Americans had no dairy tradition for the
colonists to adopt. So, as Deborah Valenze recounts in "Milk," Europeans brought cows along with
them when they set off for North America and then let these autonomous food factories graze on
the continent's unlimited vegetation until their milk or meat was needed. The cows thrived, to say
the least: Between 1627 and 1629, while the colonists were fretting about other things, the number
of cattle in Virginia grew from 2,000 to 5,000.
The iron fist of cow-milk hegemony isn't just thanks to cows' high output and doziness. Cow's milk
has some real aesthetic and practical advantages: It separates itself into cream and milk, so it can be
made into an easily drinkable beverage as well as all the luscious cream-based comestibles, such as
ice cream and crème fraiche. Its fat content is similar to that of human milk, which makes it familiar
to our palates, and its relative blandness makes it an attractive blank slate for the creation of
cheeses with a range of flavor profiles and consistencies, from runny Camemberts to rock-hard
Goudas.
But what are we missing out on by abstaining from other mammals' milk? Take the goat: Its milk is
tangier, richer, and, to reasonable persons, much tastier than cow's milk. The superior flavor owes a
great deal to the fact that goat's milk does not separate; the cream is knitted into the milk. Goats
produce the most milk of any mammal relative to body size, which would make them attractive to
industrial dairies if they weren't so small. At best, dairy goats are the size of a Newfoundland; milk
output averages only around a few gallons a day. A direr failing: Goat's milk cannot easily be made
into butter.
As for sheep's milk, almost no one in the United States or anywhere else drinks it straight. It has
twice the fat of cow's milk and human milk, making it too rich to be very appealing as a beverage.
This fattiness endears it to the world's artsier cheesemakers, who find in sheep's milk a profound
communicator of terroir.
"The sheep people are a weird bunch," says one chef, who wanted to remain anonymous so as not
to offend his favorite cheesemaker. "Sheep are difficult to raise, and fickle. You don't get much yield,
and the cheese isn't that popular, so you're talking about an eccentric person. It's very difficult."
Unpalatable fat and protein levels keep some milks off the shelves, but the difficulty of milking
recalcitrant beasts can be no less an obstacle. Consider water buffalo, which are raised in Campania,
Italy, to make the otherworldly mozzarella di bufala but are otherwise little known in the West.
Water buffalo are smart and watchful and have giant horns — in other words, they're dangerous —
yet their milk has been a cornerstone of the most dairy-crazed cuisine in the world, that of India, for
1,000 years. Indian cooks use buffalo milk in cream sauces, boil and coagulate it for paneer, or
reduce it to a paste called khoa that becomes the basis for desserts such as the rosewatersweetened gulab jamun. The low availability of water-buffalo milk in the United States limits how
authentic an Indian meal you can hope to have, and a few dairies are trying to fill the niche, but
water buffalo are difficult animals for noobs to deal with.
One Wisconsin dairyman (a former lieutenant colonel in the Israeli military) who had acquired a herd
of dairy buffalo told a newspaper that milking them was more difficult than leading troops into war.
Camel's milk, which is sometimes the only source of water in the arid climates of the Middle East
and parts of Africa, isn't much easier to obtain. Gil Riegler, who runs the Oasis Camel Dairy in
Ramona, Calif., says a typical camel produces around two gallons of milk a day in two 90-second long
bursts and only while a calf is in the act of nursing (from a different teat). And once you've got the
milk, you can't do much with it other than drink it. The low-solid content of camel's milk means it
cannot be processed into butter or cheese without high-tech intervention.
Nonetheless, Riegler (who has yet to secure to necessary Agriculture Department permits to sell his
milk) is a great believer in the product: "Where camel milk is available," he asserts, "people will
prefer to drink it." He says camel's milk contains insulin and can improve quality of life for diabetics
(seems legit) and cites stories about it treating autism (does not). To aid in water retention, camels
consume about eight times as much sodium as cows, so their milk can be weirdly salty, but it can
also be sweet. On Bizarre Foods America, Andrew Zimmern sipped some of Riegler's milk and
pronounced it "fantastic." But the fact that camel's milk was on a show called Bizarre Foods makes a
prima facie case that the American palate may not be quite ready for it.
And pig's milk, alas, is also not quite ready for the American palate. With a little effort, I tracked
down the chef I heard about at Whole Foods, the one who's trying to make pig's cheese. It's Edward
Lee of Louisville's 610 Magnolia and Top Chef. "Anyone who farms pigs would say that pigs' milk
would make an incredible cheese," he says. "The problem is that it's nearly impossible to milk pigs.
When sows are lactating, they get very aggressive. They're not docile like cows. They're smart,
skittish, suspicious and paranoid. They do not like you to get up in their business."
Lee managed to accumulate a few jars' worth of pigs' milk, from which he made half a cup of pig
ricotta that he says was delicious. Getting even such a small amount of milk required jackal-like
derring-do: Lee crept up on the sows while they were sleeping, frantically pinched at their tiny
nipples, then ran away when they woke up and started to freak out.
If only there were an industry that made pig-milking machines.
"What we've discovered," says Lee, "uh, what we've concluded, you know, is basically that the
machine that would fit a pig's teat is a human breast pump. It fits perfectly."
Source: Business Line
http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-others/tp-states/article3654905.ece;
UP Plan outlay targets 10% growth in livestock sector:
Uttar Pradesh has got an annual Plan size of Rs 57,800 crore for 2012-13. This includes Rs 800
crore Central assistance for the annual Kumbh Mela. Last fiscal, the State had an outlay of Rs
47,000 crore.
The Plan size was finalised on Wednesday after a meeting between the Planning Commission
Deputy Chairman, Mr Montek Singh Ahluwalia, and Chief Minister, Mr Akhilesh Yadav.
Satisfied with the outlay, Mr Yadav told reporters that it was a “very good start”.
Mr Yadav said the State had set a goal of 10 per cent growth rate in the terminal year of the 12th
Plan along with creation of additional employment generation opportunities to 8.3 million
persons. It will also target a 5 per cent growth in agriculture and 10 per cent plus growth in dairy,
animal husbandry, fisheries and horticulture.
Briefing the Plan panel, Mr Yadav said, “To achieve the targeted growth of 10 per cent in the
terminal year of the 12th Plan (2012-17), an investment of Rs 16.70 lakh crore will be required,
out of which Rs 4.86 lakh crore will be in public sector and Rs 11.84 lakh crore in private sector.”
He said a new industrial and agriculture policy is being worked out and would be announced
shortly.
On the State’s Plan performance, Mr Ahluwalia said it needed to further encourage private
participation by creating an atmosphere conducive to investment. Also, education and health
should be given priority while working out the development strategy. He also advised the large
State to optimise use of limited water resources while planning for 5 per cent growth in
agriculture.
Source: The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Ultra-high-temperature-pasteurisation-retainsnutrition/articleshow/15037572.cms;
'Ultra-high-temperature pasteurisation retains nutrition'
PUNE: Ultra-high-temperature (UHT) pasteurisation technique is an important attribute in the
Indian setting, as the technique allows retention of the highest quality and nutrition of milk from
start to consumption point, said senior scientist A K Singh of the National Dairy Research
Institute (NDRI).
Singh was speaking at a workshop held for the media to spread awareness about the impact of
modern technologies on the quality and nutrition of milk at Tetra Pak's Takwe plant near Pune
on Wednesday. New Delhi-basedHeal Foundation organised the workshop.
The conference highlighted how technology could contribute to ensuring quality and nutrition of
milk from dairy to doorstep and how a mother can be sure of the nutrition she is providing her
child. "Only good quality milk can undergo UHT treatment, which is then packaged in six-layer
protective packaging," Singh said.
Jagmeet Madan, principal, department of food and nutrition at SVT College of Home Science,
SNDT Women's University, Mumbai said, "If any technology ensures that nutrition of the milk
remains intact till it finally reaches the child, then nothing can be better than UHT milk in aseptic
cartons, as retention of the milk's nutrients is quite a serious issue for overall child nutrition and
health. "Moreover, UHT milk does not need to be boiled before consumption, if technology is
ready to help, then why not adopt it," said Madan, who is also president of the Indian Dietetics
Association, Mumbai Chapter.
B L Satyanarayan, specialist in aseptic technology at Tetra Pak said, "Our interactions with
mothers, nutritionists and even doctors reveal several misconceptions about UHT milk in
cartons. The public may not be aware that milk in cartons does not require preservatives and
does not need refrigeration (till the pack is opened)".
Source: The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/ITC-may-foray-into-new-homecarecategories/articleshow/15036812.cms;
ITC may foray into new homecare categories, beverages market including
dairy
KOLKATA: Hospitality to FMCG major ITC may enter new categories of homecare, as well as the
beverages business, as it has already made a mark in the personal care product and foods
business, mostly with home grown brands.
ITC has presence in home care segments through incense sticks under Mangaldeep brand.
Sources close to the development indicated that close to the Rs 30,000-crore conglomerate is
looking into homecare categories like room spray and mosquito coils. "Homecare is one of the
fastest growing areas and a large segment too. This could be a good segment for ITC to expand,"
sources added.
It has been learnt that ITC is contemplating to enter beverages segment, including dairy, in
future. ITC chairman Y C Deveshwar had said in an interview recently that it may look at
opportunity in dairy. Incidentally, ITC has already started working with farmers. It is assisting
the farmers in selling milk at market price as part of its CSR initiative. "It is also putting up a
dairy to process the milk. As of now, it is a part of CSR only. However, this is also true that out
of the untapped food market, the biggest segment is beverages including dairy. But the
distribution system for milk product is completely different from other foods businesses," added
sources.
The foods business of ITC has already crossed Rs 3,700-crore mark as per the latest annual
report. Going by consumer spends, Sunfeast is a Rs 1,800-crore brand followed by Aashirvaad at
Rs 1,200 crore and Bingo at Rs 500 crore. The executive director of ITC, Kurush N Grant, had
earlier told TOI that ITC would only enter into the categories where eventually it will be in top
three. "We have exited greetings card business because it was not picking up. Similarly, ITC will
enter only those segments where going by turnover or market share, we will be among the
leaders," he added. According to him, ITC is already in top three in biscuits, snacks, noodles and
staples with home grown brands. In PCP as well, ITC is among the leaders with home-grown
brands like Vivel, Fiama Di Wills and Superia.
ITC was supposed to invest Rs 23,000 crore in five years. Now, it has revised the time span to sixand-a-half years. The investment was planned in hotels, FMCG and agriculture. Commenting on
the new FMCG business, the chairman had earlier said that it would start making profit in five
years. "Before I hang up my boots, the new FMCG business will start making profit," he said in
the last AGM. The new FMCG business includes personal care products, foods, education and
stationary, lifestyle retailing and others.
1. Source: The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Goa-government-to-increase-support-price-of-milk-toRs-30-per-litre/articleshow/14989098.cms;
Goa government to increase support price of milk to Rs 30 per
litre
PANAJI: Goa is still a long way from boosting milk production in the state. The milk
production in the state of Goa has been pegged at 2.1 lakh litres which is less than half of
the requirement the state. 4.5 lakh litres of milk are consumed in the state everyday as
per statistics from the animal husbandry department.
To reverse this trend, the government has decided to introduce a new support price for
milk at Rs 30 per litre to dairy farmers supplying milk to the diary society. The support
price will be implemented from September 2012.
Presently, the rate for raw cow milk from local Goan suppliers is Rs 25.21 per litre
whereas processed pasteurised milk from suppliers from outside the state is Rs 24.25 per
litre. The rate for raw buffalo milk from local Goan suppliers is Rs 28.23 per litre
whereas processed pasteurised from outside Goa is Rs 31.80 per litre.
2. Source: The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/diet/Non-dairy-diet-Is-dairyfattening/articleshow/14942690.cms;
Non dairy diet: Is dairy fattening?
Common perception says that dairy products are fattening and it's best to leave them
out from our diet.
Is this perception about dairy making the majorities protein, calcium and zinc deficient?
To broaden our horizon, Nutritionist Namita Nanal from Evolve Medspa lays bares the
facts about dairy products and helps us answer the question: Is dairy fattening?
Ms. Nanal explains, "Dairy products are nourishing. They are rich in proteins, fats,
vitamins and minerals. On the whole, if a diet is poor i.e. rich in fatty foods than that can
result in weight gain. Chances of gaining weight only because of having dairy food is
moderately less."
She further elaborates the importance of milk based products and their impact on
the body, "Ghee contains butyric acid, a fatty acid which has antiviral and anti cancerous
properties. It also aids digestion and nutrient assimilation. White butter contains lauric
acid, lecithin etc. hence ghee and white butter should not be avoided but can be eatten in
moderation."
On low fat substitutions for dairy products, she says "Low fat substitutes are available in
the market. They contain almost same amount of nutrients as the full fat products
contain. Only the fat percentage is reduced. Skimmed milk, low fat cheese, paneer and
yogurt are available. These are good options for people on weight loss diets."
Dairy is good for immunity. Therefore, if you follow a non dairy diet, there are
chances that you are cutting out important vitamins that are essential for your body.
Namita Nanal says, "Dairy products are rich in nutrients. Milk, yogurt, cheese, etc are
packed with nutrients like protein, calcium, zinc and some B vitamins. Protein is a
macronutrient; protein is an important part of enzymes, hormones, muscles, nail, hair
etc. It is also important for good immunity. It is absolutely crucial for overall good
health. Protein quality of dairy products is very good."
From protein we jump to calcium. She says, "Calcium is a mineral that plays a vital
role in building of strong healthy bones and teeth. Calcium absorption is at its peak till
the age of 25 to 30 years. Hence Calcium intake needs to be optimum for a healthy
foundation."
Dairy is important for vegetarians, as it replenishes calcium and protein
deficiencies. "For vegetarians dairy products are an important source of proteins and
calcium. A compound, trans-palmitoleic acid, is a fatty acid found in milk, cheese, yogurt
and butter (Via - Harvard School of Public Health). It is not produced by the body and
thus only comes from your diet."
Ms Nanal concludes: "Dairy products are packed with nutrients and contain good fats. It
is the overall diet which you need to take care of rather than eliminating dairy products."
3. Source: The Times of India
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/pune/Buffalo-milk-production-hit-by-lack-offodder/articleshow/15012139.cms
Buffalo milk production hit by lack of fodder
PUNE: The break in monsoon rainfall in the district has brought down the buffalo milk
production by about 12,000 litres per day, said Vivek Kshirsagar, managing director of
the Pune District Co-operative Milk Producers' Federation Ltd, popularly known
as Katraj dairy.
Speaking to TOI, he said, "Lack of green fodder due to inadequate rainfall has affected
milk production. Crops such as jowar and maize are commonly cultivated by the farmers
during the kharif season, parts of which can be used as fodder. We used to get a supply of
25,000 litres of buffalo milk every day. For the last few weeks the supply has gone down
by 12,000 litres per day."
The supply of cow milk is showing a marginal variation but has not dropped as
drastically as the buffalo milk production, as cows are less sensitive to the lack of green
fodder. If the rainfall situation continues unchanged, lack of fodder will soon affect cow
milk production too, Kshirsagar said.
"Every day, we are in contact with farmers from various parts of the district, who have
been complaining about the drop in milk yield and enquiring about alternative measures
to increase milk production," he said.
The dairy sector usually goes through a period of shortage during summer, when fodder
and water are not available. The insufficient rainfall during June and July this year has
reduced availability of green fodder. The green grass grown everywhere on barren land is
a major source of fodder to farmers, but this year it has not been available in abundance,
Kshirsagar said.
"This has lowered milk production, especially in buffaloes, as the animal prefers cold
weather and water. There is no water in small lakes or check dams in the villages where
farmers can leave their cattle for some time. This has also forced dairies in the district to
buy milk from adjacent districts at higher prices to meet the city's demand," he said.
Kshirsagar said, "The district produces around 20 lakh litres of milk daily, but a
significant portion of it goes to private companies manufacturing milk products such as
cheese and butter. Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad need some 10 lakh litres of milk per day,
a demand that cannot be met due to the decline in supply."
Baramati and Indapur tehsils have their own cooperative milk dairies and do not supply
milk to Katraj dairy. Both the dairies have their own marketing channels and their
clients mainly include milk product manufacturing companies.
Cow milk is sold at Rs 17 per litre, while buffalo milk is sold at Rs 25.25 per litre.
Kshirsagar said that there would be no rise in milk price in the immediate future as the
state could receive good rainfall in next two months.
There are about 85 milk brands in the retail market in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad.
Compared to cow milk, buffalo milk is known for its high nutritional value and to
maintain it, dairies have started mixing milk powder in the milk. It is an attempt to
maintain the quality of the milk as well as meet the growing demand, he maintained.
4. Source: www.fnbnews.com
http://www.fnbnews.com/article/detnews.asp?articleid=32194&sectionid=40;
Unlike most other Asian countries, dairy products are a well-established part of the
national diet in India. With an annual output of more than 100 million tonnes, India is
the largest milk producer in the world. Currently, only 13 per cent of the milk is
processed. The unorganised sector distributes 85 per cent, however, the organised sector
is growing rapidly. Demand for packaged milk and milk products will increase because
the growing middle-class, health-conscious consumer segment - especially in towns and
cities - is adopting Western lifestyles and consequently buying more and more processed
and packaged food. The availability of fresh / pasteurised and long life / UHT milk is
increasing nationwide.
Brace for yoghurt war: Pepsi shifts aim from cola,
takes on Dannon & Chobani
Are the cola wars at an end?
Brace for the yogurt wars, as PepsiCo, long focused on battling its archrival, Coca-Cola, takes on the
likes of Dannon and General Mills, not to mention Fage and Chobani.
In the most visible sign yet of its efforts to curb its reliance on soda sales, PepsiCo this month will
start selling yogurt in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic states.
The products will initially be manufactured in Europe by Theo Muller, a large privately held German
dairy company that has formed a joint venture with PepsiCo to capitalize on the growing yogurt
market in the United States.
"We're very excited about this," said Sam Lteif, chief executive of Muller Quaker Dairy, the joint
venture. "There's a huge opportunity for dairy in the US market, and we're optimistic about getting into
it."
So confident are the two companies that they are investing $206 million in a 363,000-square-foot
plant in Batavia, N.Y., announced in February, that will employ some 180 people and churn out 5
billion cups of yogurt a year.
PepsiCo, under its chief executive, Indra K. Nooyi, has been working to decrease its reliance on
sugarycarbonated beverages and snacks by developing new products and retooling old ones to
increase their nutritional quality while remaining true to the company's more playful roots.
Nooyi calls this the "fun for you, better for you, good for you" strategy, and it has led to innovations
that have reduced sodium in Lays potato chips and other snack chips and new sweeteners to reduce
calories in juice products like Trop 50 and sodas like Pepsi Next.
The goal with Muller by Quaker is to add fun to yogurt, which Americans have regarded as a dutiful
but not delicious snack. "It's been an 'I gotta have it because it's good for me' kind of a product," said
Dr. Mehmood Khan, who oversees PepsiCo's global research and development. "The 'wanna have it'
was missing."
Or as Stefan Muller, the great-grandson of Muller's founder, said: "Here in America, yogurt is so
boring."
He noted that Americans on average consumed 12 pounds of yogurt a year, or half as much as
Canadians and a third the amount of Europeans. "We look at the products and it's no wonder it's so
low," he said.
Muller by Quaker will try to change that with what Lteif calls "mainstream premium" products that fill a
gap between mass brands like Dannon and Yoplait and niche Greek yogurts like Fage and Chobani.
Sales of yogurt have been strong in Kroger stores across the country for the last several years, said
Alan Faust, director of dairy perishable and frozen foods at the Kroger Co. "It has a healthier image
and is tied to a healthier lifestyle," Faust said. "Some Greek is even being used as a meal
replacement."
He has tasted the new Muller by Quaker products and says they represent an entirely new variety of
yogurt, falling somewhere between Greek and conventional yogurts. "It's a really high quality, flavorful
product with good body texture," he said.
Two varieties of the Muller by Quaker yogurts, one conventional and one Greek, come in square
rather than traditional round packages with one corner filled with an ingredient that the consumer can
add to the yogurt by folding the corner or using a spoon. Besides traditional fruit flavors like
strawberry and blueberry, these supplements include caramelized almonds, tiny chocolate-covered
crunch balls and granola.
The third variety is called Fruit Up because the fruit comes in a mousse that sits on top of the yogurt
for the consumer to stir in. That allows the consumer to smell the peaches or raspberries as soon as
the foil cover is removed.
Muller by Quaker also seeks to address one of the biggest consumer complaints about yogurt: its
texture. Consumers find Greek yogurts dry and chalky, while conventional yogurt is seen as watery
and tasteless.
"You have five senses, and we're aiming to hit at least four of them with these products," Lteif said.
Yogurt is one of the hottest categories of the food market, stoked by the success of Greek yogurts,
which are thicker and higher in protein. Yogurt sales in the US this year will add up to roughly $7
billion, according to the consumer research firm Mintel, an increase of 9 percent over last year - when
sales increased by 7.5 percent.
"In the food business, growth of 1 to 2 percent is considered very good, particularly for a mature
product like yogurt," said John Frank, category manager for consumer packaged goods reports at
Mintel. "This kind of growth is remarkable."
In the US, Dannon and Yoplait, in which General Mills has a 51 percent stake, are by far the dominant
players. Dannon has 25.5 percent of the sales in supermarkets, drugstores and mass merchandise
stores other than Wal-Mart, and Yoplait is at 26.2 percent, according to the SymphonyIRI Group, a
market research firm.
But the inroads of brands like Fage and Chobani in driving new sales of yogurt gave PepsiCo
confidence that there was room for another brand.
One of the biggest challenges for companies trying to break into the yogurt market is getting shelf
space in the dairy cases of grocery stores. PepsiCo, with its vaunted distribution system, already sells
its Tropicana juices there and has additional clout with retailers through its Frito-Lay and beverage
businesses.
Analysts have long said that PepsiCo failed to exploit the Quaker brand, which it acquired in 2000 as
part of its shift to more nutritional foods.
"Pepsi has so far mostly refocused unhealthy products to become healthy as opposed to leveraging
and expanding the Quaker brand," said Ali Dibadj, a beverage analyst at Sanford Bernstein. "They've
missed an opportunity with Quaker in nuts and other healthy products."
Khan's research team has been working largely out of Quaker's old headquarters in Chicago, and its
innovations are just beginning to arrive in the market. Many of them are built around dairy, which is
becoming a larger piece of PepsiCo's business.
In 2009, it created a joint venture with Almarai, a big Saudi Arabian dairy company, and last year, it
completed its purchase of Wimm-Bill-Dann, a large Russian dairy company. The Russian acquisition
increased sales of its healthier portfolio of products to about $13 billion annually, and PepsiCo
expects that wedge of its pie to grow to $30 billion, driven largely by yogurt and dairy, by 2020.
Last year, for example, a protein the team extracted from milk was added to Gatorade Recovery,
which perhaps explains Coca-Cola's recent agreement to distribute a small dairy-based sports drink,
Core Power, which is owned by a dairy cooperative.
Quaker this year introduced Real Medleys, a line of instant multigrain oatmeal with added fruits and
nuts that can be eaten right out of the container, and Khan said the company could not meet demand
for the product.
Such changes have led at least one Wall Street analyst to voice what had been regarded as heresy
and spoken only in whispers. "The cola wars have abated," said John Faucher, the beverage analyst
at JPMorgan Chase. "Pepsi is now focused on growing all the beverages it sells - teas, juices,
Gatorade - and not just selling more carbonated soda than Coke at the expense of profit margins."
Let the yogurt wars begin.

Saras Dairy caught ‘red-handed’ mixing caustic soda in milk
Jaipur/Jodhpur: In its bid to conserve large amount of milk in its plant, Saras Dairy is
allegedly adulterating milk with caustic soda. A worker was caught red-handed while mixing the
caustic soda in raw milk at Saras Dairy’s milk plant in Basni.
The adulterated milk could have a major impact on blood pressure and sugar levels.
However, the managing director of the company pretended to be ignorant of the activity and
immediately removed the employee who was caught red-handed.
Bhaskar Team visited the Saras Dairy plant and encountered that a worker was mixing the
caustic soda in the tanker full of raw milk. When interrogated, the worker said he was just
performing his duties. He further said that he had received the order from higher officials.
Bhaskar Team was surprised to know that the caustic soda was added in the milk after the
samples were sent to the laboratory for test. This was done to avoid any negative report in the lab
test.
When asked, the managing director said he was ignorant of such activities in the plant. He
immediately sacked the accused, Vishnu, and plant supervisor, Rakesh Kumar.
After this incident, questions are being raised about the quality of 30,000-litres milk as supplied
by Saras Dairy. The company allegedly adds caustic soda in order to neutralize the acidity of the
raw milk procured from different suppliers.
1.Source: Business Line
Link : http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-opinion/article3625089.ece;
Wanted, a fresh strategy for milk
B.M. VYAS
SHARE · PRINT · T+
We need to discourage export of protein meal, and feed more of it to our cows and buffaloes.
We have all read or heard how, in the past, India was a land flowing with milk and honey.
The country, after all, had some of the best breeds, both of cattle (Sahiwal, Red Sindhi, Gir,
Kankrej, Tharparkar and Ongole) and buffalo (Murrah, Nili-Ravi, Jaffarabadi, Mehsana and
Banni), besides also the best cattle breeders in the world.
Moreover, we had tropical weather, reasonably good monsoon, and both rainfed as well as
perennial rivers flowing through fertile land mass — all conducive for dairy farming.
Yet, when we became independent in 1947, milk was scarce and beyond our means. What went
wrong? For an answer, we need to look at history in a different light, going back to the advent of
the British era. That was when a trend of urbanisation around major sea ports such as Mumbai,
Chennai, Kolkata, and also the national capital of Delhi gathered momentum.
Destroying genetic wealth
The ever increasing population in these centres generated rising demand for milk, resulting in
the setting up of tabelas and khattals — enclosures where cows and buffaloes were reared for
milk. Even today, one can, while taking a local train from the north to south of Mumbai, spot a
large number of these enclosures alongside the tracks.
The tabela owners, always keen to maximise short-term profits, would bring the best of the high
yielding animals from the hinterlands along with their young calves. Once the milk flow was
established — which is all that interested them — they would wean away the calf within a week or
so and send it for slaughtering.
The animals in-milk, too, would be reared for a few lactation cycles, before being disposed of to
the slaughter house as well. The empty slots in the tabela would, then, be filled with the next lot
of cattle from the hinterland.
But each time the tabela owners sent the calves for slaughtering, they were also destroying our
best genetic stock without appreciating that the ‘calf’ is a future cow. This process went on,
unchecked for more than a century and not just in Mumbai but in all metros. Over time, it
translated into the country losing its best genetic pedigree and being left with milch animals with
dismal productivity.
Amul’s advent
This state of affairs — where milk was being produced and consumed in urban India, with
government schemes also doing the same — changed with Amul coming into existence in 1946.
This was a cooperative owned by farmers producing milk from animals reared in their natural
rural environment itself and not brought for eventual slaughtering in the city tabelas.
As the Amul model grew — providing market access and remunerative prices to farmers along
with services such as veterinary care, balanced cattle feed supply, artificial insemination and
progeny-tested frozen semen — milk production and animal productivity started going up.
For the first time in about 200 years, someone was also trying to stop and reverse the depletion
of our precious animal genetic wealth.
Between the mid-1970s and the 1990s, the dairy cooperative movement spread to more than 200
districts of India, with milk production growing at 4 to 5 per cent per annum, from 20 million
tonnes (mt) to the current levels of 120 mt. India emerged as the world’s largest milk producer
and per capita consumption, too, rose to almost the global average.
If milk production could increase six-fold in less than 40 years, what makes our bureaucrats,
sitting in their plush air-conditioned offices in New Delhi, doubt our ability to achieve an output
of 200 mt by 2020? It sometimes raises doubts about their real intent: Resorting to milk powder
imports and banning export of dairy products is something that comes most naturally to
our babus!
Crude protein export
Doubling India’s production over the next 10 years is surely achievable, with better road
connectivity, power supply and faster communication infrastructure, and more educated milk
producers.
But that requires strategic initiatives in raising milk productivity, where our national institutions
have grossly failed.
We have lost valuable time, failing to master modern technologies for dairy cattle genetic
upgradation that have been successfully applied in the US, New Zealand, Europe and even Israel,
China and Brazil. What would take decades through earlier technologies such as progeny testing
can be achieved at much less time and cost today using advanced genetic engineering tools.
It is high time a special mission is created to spearhead deployment of genetic engineering tools
for supply of pre-sexed, high pedigree frozen embryos and semen of proven bulls from our
indigenous breeds such as the Gir, Kankrej, Sahiwal and Murrah.
Also, we need to revisit the policy of exporting millions of tonnes of soya, cotton-seed and rapeseed meal, all of which contain 30-40 per cent high-quality crude protein. If these are fed to our
cows, buffaloes or poultry, they would be converted into highly digestible protein that our
children and women need most.
It is often argued that export of meal brings in valuable foreign exchange, but the reality is that
most of it gets spent again on import of pulses! Now, I am not anti-globalisation or liberalisation,
but exporting crude protein and importing pulse protein just doesn't make sense.
At affordable prices
My point is, we must make our fodder and feed resources at an affordable rate for our animals
first, which is what the Government earlier did by imposing a 20 per cent levy on export of
protein meal.
Reinstating this will not affect our oilseed farmers, who are hurt more by the country importing
massive volumes of edible oil at negligible import duty.
If well-managed, the next couple of decades can become a golden era for India’s milk production
and cattle productivity gains, especially with a young population growing hand-in-hand and
powering a market for milk and value-added dairy products. Meeting this demand by importing
is an unsustainable proposition.
If we want our countrymen to be strong, tall, healthy, smart, and to live for 100 years, we need
more milk at affordable prices. Not right-for-food or rural employment guarantee schemes!
Resorting to milk powder imports and banning export of dairy products is
something that comes most naturally to our babus, who seem least concerned
about the well being of the dairy sector.
(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated July 11, 2012)
2. Source: NY Times
Link : http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/07/got-milk-you-dont-needit/?ref=dairyproducts
GOT MILK? YOU DON’T NEED IT:
Drinking milk is as American as Mom and apple pie. Until not long ago, Americans were
encouraged not only by the lobbying group called the American Dairy Association but by
parents, doctors and teachers to drink four 8-ounce glasses of milk, “nature’s perfect food,”
every day. That’s two pounds! We don’t consume two pounds a day of anything else; even
our per capita soda consumption is “only” a pound a day.
Today the Department of Agriculture’s recommendation for dairy is a mere three cups daily
— still 1½ pounds by weight — for every man, woman and child over age 9. This in a country
where as many as 50 million people are lactose intolerant, including 90 percent of all AsianAmericans and 75 percent of all African-Americans, Mexican-Americans and Jews.
The myplate.gov site helpfully suggests that those people drink lactose-free beverages. (To
its credit, it now counts soy milk as “dairy.”)
There’s no mention of water, which is truly nature’s perfect beverage; the site simply
encourages us to switch to low-fat milk. But, says Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians
Committee for Responsible Medicine, “Sugar — in the form of lactose — contributes about
55 percent of skim milk’s calories, giving it ounce for ounce the same calorie load as soda.”
O.K., dairy products contain nutrients, and for those who like them, a serving or two daily is
probably fine. (Worth noting: they’re far more easily digested as yogurt or cheese than as
fluid milk.) But in addition to intolerance, there’s a milk allergy — the second most common
food allergy after peanuts, affecting an estimated 1.3 million children — that can be lifethreatening.
Emily Robertson
\Other conditions are not easily classified, and I have one of those. When I was growing up,
drinking milk at every meal, I had a chronic upset stomach. (Channeling my inner Woody
Allen, I’ll note that I was therefore treated as a neurotic, which, in fairness, I was anyway.) In
adolescence, this became chronic heartburn, trendily known as GERD or acid reflux, and
that led to a lifelong Tums habit (favorite flavor: wintergreen) and an adult dependence on
Prevacid, a proton-pump inhibitor. Which, my gastroenterologist assured me, is benign.
(Wrong.)
Fortunately my long-term general practitioner, Sidney M. Baker, author of “Detoxification
and Healing,” insisted that I make every attempt to break the Prevacid addiction. Thus
followed a seven-year period of trials of various “cures,” including licorice pills, lemon juice,
antibiotics, famotidine (Pepcid) and almost anything else that might give my poor, sore
esophagus some relief. At some point, Dr. Baker suggested that despite my omnivorous diet
I consider a “vacation” from various foods.
So, three months ago, I decided to give up dairy products as a test. Twenty-four hours later,
my heartburn was gone. Never, it seems, to return. In fact, I can devour linguine puttanesca
(with anchovies) and go to bed an hour later; fellow heartburn sufferers will be impressed.
Perhaps equally impressive is that I mentioned this to a friend who had the same problem,
tried the same approach, and had the same results. Presto! No dairy, no heartburn! (A third
had no success. Hey, it’s not a controlled double-blind experiment, but there is no downside
to trying it.)
Conditions like mine are barely on the radar. Although treating heartburn is a business
worth more than $10 billion a year, the solution may be as simple as laying off dairy.
(Which, need I point out, is free.) What’s clear is that the widespread existence of lactose
intolerance, says Dr. Baker, is “a pretty good sign that we’ve evolved to drink human milk
when we’re babies but have no need for the milk of any animals. And no matter what you
call a chronic dairy problem — milk allergy, milk intolerance, lactose intolerance — the
action is the same: avoid all foods derived from milk for at least five days and see what
happens.”
Adds Dr. Barnard, “It’s worth noting that milk and other dairy products are our biggest
source of saturated fat, and there are very credible links between dairy consumption and
both Type 1 diabetes and the most dangerous form of prostate cancer.” Then, of course,
there are our 9 million dairy cows, most of whom live tortured, miserable lives while making
a significant contribution to greenhouse gases.
But what about the bucolic cow on the family farm? What about bone density and
osteoporosis? What about Mom, and apple pie?
Mom: Don’t know about yours, but mine’s doing pretty well. Apple pie (best made with one
crust, plenty of apples) will be fine.
But the bucolic cow and family farm barely exist: “Given the Kafkaesque federal milk
marketing order system, it’s impossible for anyone to make a living producing and selling
milk,” says Anne Mendelson, author of “Milk.” “The exceptions are the very largest dairy
farms, factory operations with anything from 10,000 to 30,000 cows, which can exploit the
system, and the few small farmers who can opt out of it and sell directly to an assured
market, and who can afford the luxury of treating the animals decently.”
Osteoporosis? You don’t need milk, or large amounts of calcium, for bone integrity. In fact,
the rate of fractures is highest in milk-drinking countries, and it turns out that the keys to
bone strength are lifelong exercise and vitamin D, which you can get from sunshine. Most
humans never tasted fresh milk from any source other than their mother for almost all of
human history, and fresh cow’s milk could not be routinely available to urbanites without
industrial production. The federal government not only supports the milk industry by
spending more money on dairy than any other item in the school lunch program, but by
contributing free propaganda as well as subsidies amounting to well over $4 billion in the
last 10 years.
There’s nothing un-American about re-evaluating those commitments with an eye toward
sensibility. Meanwhile, pass the water.
3. Source: NY Times
Link: http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/06/22/a-hybrid-approach-to-solar-power/;
A Hybrid Approach to Solar Power
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Cogrenra: A solar installation at the Clover Stornetta dairy processing plant in Petaluma, Calif.
When photovoltaic cells make electricity from sunlight, they collect a lot of heat along the way.
And they don’t work as well warm as they do cold.
Four years ago I wrote about a hybrid system that was intended both to make electricity and
gather usable heat on residential rooftops. That company, now called Echo Solar, is offering its
product around the country.
But the market for such hybrids goes beyond homes, especially if the second product is hot water,
which can make steam and then electricity. Now another company, Cogenra, is supplying a
hybrid solar electricity and hot-water system for big apartment buildings, dormitories, retirement
homes, wineries, food processing plants and, most recently, a dairy, all of which use large
amounts of hot water. It has 40 installations worldwide.
The basic problem, according to Gilad Almogy, the chief executive of Cogenra, is that a
photovoltaic cell captures only about 15 percent of the sun’s energy. Another 5 percent or so
reflects back off the solar cell. “Where’s the rest? It’s heat,’’ he said. On a 100-degree day in a
sunny location, the cell, which is black, can reach 160 degrees Fahrenheit, he explained.
So his company mounts the cells on water pipes in the center of trough-shaped mirrors. The
mirrors concentrate the sun’s energy by a factor of 10. The result is electricity and water that is
warmed to as much as 158 degrees. The temperature can be varied, according to the application;
water for sterilizing a food processing tank is hotter than water for a shower.
The trough design is not new; it is similar to the one used at solar thermal power plants, which
boil water into steam to spin a turbine, turn a generator and make electricity. But in Cogenra’s
installations, the water does not reach the boiling point. If it did, the solar cells would not work
very well.
As measured by heat content, the bulk of the production is hot water, but the electricity sells at a
higher price. The economics vary by location; in most parts of the United States, the value of the
hot water is set by the value of the natural gas that did not have to be burned because the solar
system did the work instead.
Since natural gas is currently very cheap, the small electricity production may be more valuable.
But in Hawaii or India, where fuel to heat the water has to be shipped in, the value of the hot
water would be higher, Mr. Almogy said.
If a quantity of electricity is worth four times as much as the equivalent amount of natural gas,
then the hot water and the electricity produced by his system have about equal value, he said. At
the moment, though, the electricity is worth far more than four times as much, because the price
of natural gas is depressed by a surplus brought on by fracking.
The economics of his system works well in California because that state offers a rebate for the
installation of renewable systems for heating hot water, he said. The rebate is equal to $12.82 per
therm of gas saved in the first year, which is well above what a therm actually costs most
consumers at the moment.
While Cogenra’s system starts with the same concept as Echo Solar’s, they are not quite
competitors. They are both backed by the same alternative energy investor, Vinod Khosla.