India leads world dairy output: Modi at WorldFood 2025
At the inauguration of World Food India 2025 in New Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasized India’s growing dominance in global food processing and agriculture. Speaking at Bharat Mandapam, he remarked that India now contributes 25 percent of the globe’s milk supply, making it the world’s largest milk producer.
He underscored the transformational role of cooperatives and small farmers, noting that India’s dairy sector has gained renewed strength through policy support. Modi also highlighted recent tax reforms — butter and ghee now attract only 5 percent GST, while milk cans are similarly taxed — which he said will reduce costs for producers and improve affordability for consumers.
The Prime Minister further noted that India’s processed food exports have more than doubled recently, supported by a twenty-fold expansion in processing capacity over the past decade. He invited domestic and global investors to deepen their engagement in India’s agriculture and food systems, leveraging India’s “diversity, demand and scale.”
Industry Insights :
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India’s position as largest milk producer, contributing a quarter of global output, gives its dairy sector both scale and a strong base for export ambitions.
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The reduction in GST on butter, ghee, and milk cans is a strategic move: it lowers input costs, enables better margins or lower consumer prices, and strengthens competitiveness for value-added dairy products.
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With processing capacity increasing twenty-fold and exports doubling, the dairy industry is well placed to ride growth in both domestic nutrition demand and international markets.
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Cooperatives and farmer collectives gain fresh impetus from the PM’s focus: aligning them with processing, infrastructure, quality controls, and market access will be critical in the next phase.
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Policymakers and dairy firms must prepare for the next leap: consistent quality, cold chain investments, regulatory alignment (e.g. sanitary certification), and branding to take advantage of the scale India now commands.