Dairy majors in India planning to set up buffalo mozzarella plants

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi gave its approval last year to introduce the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme in the food processing sector also . This scheme is for enhancing India’s Manufacturing Capabilities and Enhancing Exports under Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.

List of products under PLI

The list of the products from Food processing sectors covered under the PLI scheme are as follows :

1. Ready to Eat / Ready to Cook (RTE/ RTC)
2. Marine Products
3. Fruits & Vegetables
4. Honey
5. Desi Ghee
6. Mozzarella Cheese
7. Organic eggs and poultry meat

Also read : Who moved Mozzarella cheese and ghee into the PLI scheme for dairy ?

Buffalo mozzarella cheese is a premium product in the international markets. According to the scheme, companies that make selected products  will get an incentive of up to a certain per cent (e.g 6% for mobile phones) on incremental sales of all such products  made in India. These incentives will be linked with incremental production of the product category. It will be verified through gst and exports details for the year under consideration. This scheme is meant for greenfield projects only in the selected sectors and product categories.

Amul’s plan

Amul is India’s largest dairy cooperative and the largest producer of Cheese in the country. It has developed a plan and submitted to the government in this regard. This plan is position India as a global leader for the export of mozzarella cheese made by using buffalo milk. The total buffaloes in the country is 109.85 Million in 2020 census showing an increase of about 1.0% over previous Census .There may be many more players going ahead for expanding their production capacities using buffalo milk in near future to avail the scheme.