The capital city of Tamil Nadu alone accounts for 51.25 per cent of all milk sold by the government-run Aavin. It also accounts for a bulk of the sale of milk products made by Aavin. Little wonder then that the government has expressed keen interest in leveraging Aavin’s hold on Chennai by aiming for even higher sales.
Milk and Dairy Development Minister V Moorthy recently announced in the State Legislative Assembly that Aavin would set up 100 parlours in urban areas across the State, a majority of which are expected to come up in Chennai.
The growth mantra for Aavin seems to be youth. The parlours to be set up across the city will come up in places frequented by large crowds, with a specific focus on setting up the shops near schools and colleges.
The government has dedicated a significant amount of attention to Chennai city, introducing the milk smart card system in the city on December 1, 2012. This system is part of the effort to improve services to consumers in the Chennai region. Consumers can now avail their milk cards online.
“Metro has been seeing steady increase in the sale of liquid milk. Chennai metro region has been expanded and the population is growing,” observed the policy note for 2013-14 tabled in the Assembly by Moorthy. “In order to fulfil rising demand Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers’ Federation is planning to increase the sale of milk to 12 lakh litres per day in Chennai,” the policy note said.
Of the 21.15 lakh litres of milk that Aavin sells across Tamil Nadu every day, Chennai alone glugs down a whopping 10.84 lakh litres per day (LLPD). Seventeen other district unions covering the whole of the rest of Tamil Nadu account for 9.54 lakh litres. Salem comes in a very distant second (1.76 LLPD), with Madurai (1.58 LLPD), Coimbatore (1.49 LLPD) and Tiruchirapalli (1.13 LLPD) following close behind.
While Chennai may not come close to consuming the majority of all the milk produced in Tamil Nadu, it is certainly the largest consumer of Aavin milk.