Katraj Dairy, the popular name for the Pune District Federation of Co-operative Milk Producers’, a district level co-operative organisation, will thus become the first milk co-operative in Maharashtra to plan a commercial venture on such a large scale. A plan has been prepared by Katraj Dairy and sent to the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) for its approval.

The co-operative is banking on its being a local company to add to the freshness quotient and make a dent in the highly competitive ice-cream market. Production is likely to start in a year’s time and initial production of ice-cream will be up to one tonne. Incidentally, Katraj Dairy will be to celebrating its golden jubilee in March 2010.

The Rs 6-crore plan involves not just production of ice-cream but also the setting up of a bottling plant for packaging flavoured milk, modern technology for checking the quality of milk and filling milk cans, a homogeniser and a paneer press maker, among other things.

“Over the last three years, our business has seen a marked rise. There is a plenty of milk available at our plant and we have started producing by-products from it, which also increases our revenue. We want to step into large-scale ice-cream production and have forwarded a proposal to NDDB a couple of months back. We are hopeful that we will get a green signal very soon. If it happens, it will add a flavour to our golden jubilee celebrations in 2010. None of the milk co-operatives in Maharashtra have tried this on a large scale so far,” said chairman of Katraj Dairy, Balasaheb Newale.

At present, Katraj Dairy, which was registered in 1960, sells 1.4 lakh litres of milk daily. It also sells some milk by-products including softy ice cream at its two parlours located at Katraj and Bund Garden. This year, it has also introduced pedha, a milk delicacy, in the market.

Katraj’s marketing officer, S S Upasani said, “There is no trouble getting a nod from NDDB, which will also provide technical support to us. Presently, we just prepare ice-cream mix and then convert it into softies It is available in three flavours—mango, vanilla and chocolate—and has a good demand. But if we go into ice-cream production, we have to keep in mind the fierce market competition where we will have to compete with over a 100 existing brands. But as ours will be a local production house, we would be able to deliver fresh products than out-of-the-state brands”.