BHUBANESWAR: The Orissa State Cooperative Milk Producers Federation (Omfed) today added another feather in its cap by launching its own brand of ice cream.
Having a well organised marketing network across the State, Omfed aims at capturing at least 50 per cent of the market currently dominated by big corporate houses in two years.
After inauguration of the ice cream plant on the premises of Bhubaneswar Dairy by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Chairman and Managing Director of Omfed Suresh Chandra Mohapatra told mediapersons that the plant would process 6,000 litres of milk daily for production of quality ice-cream in four flavours - vanilla, strawberry, chocolate and butter scotch.
Initially, the Omfed ice cream will be marketed in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar through 500 authorised retail outlets and this will be made available in other areas of the State in due course. This will also be available in departmental parlours, Omfed corporate office, Bhubaneswar Dairy, Chandrasekharpur, Vikash Sadan parlour at CDA and SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, Mohapatra said.
Although construction of the ice cream plant was started in 2009, it was commissioned a year ahead of the schedule. While the project cost `4 crore, 50 per cent of the cost was provided by the Ministry of Agriculture under the Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana (RKVY) and the balance came from the internal accruals of the federation.
The present turnover of Omfed is `300 crore out of which `225 crore comes from the farmer members. On an average a farmer earns an additional income of `8,700 by selling milk to Omfed. The profit from the sales of ice cream will be shared among the farmer members, Mohapatra said.
Minister for Agriculture Damodar Rout, local MP Prasanna Patsani, legislators Bhagirathi Badajena, Bijay Kumar Mohanty, Ashok Panda, BMC mayor Ananta Jen, Chief Secretary TK Mishra and Agriculture Secretary U.P Singh were present during the inauguration of the plant.