Procurement and Inputs:

Union is procuring approximate 200000 Litre milk per day. For this Union's
contract vehicle is plying approximate 7500 Km/day 65 numbers routes are in
operation. In case of Societies not falling in the regular route requiring
diversion, resulting in additional cost, Union will either reimburse @ Rs.1 per
litre of milk to those Societies for delivering milk in the truck route or will
recover the excess cost over and above Rs 1 per litre from the concerned
Societies. Union will not encourage sub centres. But will collect milk from sub
centres enroute and will recover the excess cost if any for collecting milk from
sub centres if deviating from the normal route is required for collecting the
milk . Milk collection route contract is awarded annually by collecting
competitive offers.
Union is going for quality improvement of raw milk by installing milk coolers
in Societies. At present 41 Nos of coolers are in operation. 20 nos of coolers will
be added before December 2009. Government of India is financing 75% cost
for installing coolers. Rs.10 crores has already been sanctioned for this. Union
will meet all expenditure for operating the coolers in Societies.
Input wing is responsible for health care, insurance, genetic upgradation,
nutrition, production enhancement, etc.
Marketing:
Union is selling 4.5 lakh litre milk per day through 5000 agents.70 nos of milk
distribution routes are engaged for milk distribution covering 10,000 Km/day.
Milk distribution contracts are awarded bi-annually.There are 25 No of
wholesale agents for distributing its products other than milk. Insulated vehicle
are engaged for all long distance routes in order to maintain cold chain. Agents
are provided with Puf boxes for storing milk. Sales Promotion, advertisement
and customer relations are responsibilities of this function.


Production:
Production Department is responsible for the processing of milk,
standardization, packing and storage and quality maintenance. It is also
responsible for production of various products, packing and storage.


Maintenance:
Maintenance Department is responsible for the operation and maintenance of
plant and service machinery like boiler, refrigeration, effluent treatment,
stores & purchase, etc.
Finance and Accounts:
Finance and Accounts Department is responsible for fund managements,
accounting, auditing, etc.

Quality Control:
Quality assurance function is responsible for continuous quality improvement,
ensuring that products marketed as per PFA standards, testing quality of raw
materials, packing materials, in process materials and finished products.



The Organisation Profile
The Organisation
Thiruvananthapuram Regional Co-operative Milk Producers' Union Ltd
(TRCMPU) was registered in 1985, as a Regional Milk Union with 4 Southern
Districts of Kerala viz,Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and
Pathanamthitta as its area of operation. TRCMPU was formed by dividing the
area of operation of Kerala Milk Marketing Federation, formed for
implementing OF II project in 1980, in to two viz ERCMPU with 4 northern
districts under OF II area, and TRCMPU.

Thiruvananthapuram Regional Co-operative Milk Producers Union has completed 25
years of its operation successfully. It has successfully faced odds like excessive
procurement in the initial stages and consequent losses, stagnation of sales in early
1990s and of late shortage of milk and related problems and consequent loss. With
such diverse experience in the past and the talent pool it has, it can face any adverse
environmental problems successfully. In 1985, Union started operation from the old
Thiruvananthapuram Dairy handed over by KLD & MM Board which was selling
milk in Thiruvananthapuram and Kollam districts and having a capacity of 40,000
LPD. The first Dairy plant under OF II project in TRCMPU area was commissioned
at Kollam with a capacity of 60,000 LPD in 1986. Subsequently Chilling Plants with
capacity of 10,000 LPD each were set up at Mannar and Pathanamthitta. New Dairy
Plant at Alappuzha with a capacity of 60,000 LPD was commissioned in 1989, and
new Dairy Plant with one lakh LPD capacity was commissioned at
Thiruvananthapuram in 1992. The Dairy plant at Alappuzha was transferred to
KCMMF in 1992 in order to facilitate operation of Powder Plant set up at Alappuzha
for handling surplus milk in the State.


Subsequently capacity of Kollam Dairy was expanded to 1 Lakh LPD and that of
Thiruvananthapuram Dairy to 2 Lakh LPD. The capacities of the Chilling Plants
were also expanded to 30,000 LPD each. A glance at the unions procurement
and sales over the years as given below and reveal that Unions procurement and
sale has been showing a two digit growth over the years.

Year Milk Procurement(LPD) Milk Sales(LPD)
2000-01 231649 288334
2001-02 273551 298788
2002-03 252521 316425
2003-04 205067 321806
2004-05 206200 354361
2005-06 234280 377579
2006-07 254827 406890
2007-08 230476 402109
2008-09 213085 403073
However the growth in procurement has always been lagging as compared to
milk sales. Union used to have surplus milk in the flush season up to 1996.
However the fast growth in demand there after and rapid decline in milk
production in the State after 2001, owing to demographic problems like rapid
urbanization, diminishing land holding size, transformation to nuclear families
and reduction in family size, due to reduction in population growth, attractive
price for cash crops, shortage of unskilled labour an offshoot of high literacy
rate, etc. The demand for milk has been growing rapidly since the beginning and
even the opening up of markets in 1991 did not affect this growth much. Unlike
the northern districts of the State, not many competitors ever came to the
market. Union in fact had maximum sales growth during the period 1995-2000.
Union has been purchasing milk right from the beginning from the other two
sister Unions and also from outside States mostly Tamil Nadu till 2006. The
Fresh and Glowing Fresher

From 2006 onwards, Unions milk deficit shot up due to rise in demand and drop
in milk procurement and the milk availability in Tamil Nadu also came down
and hence Union was forced to move to Karnataka for meeting its deficit. This
reduced availability of milk in the Southern States resulted in the steep increase
in milk price in Karnataka and Union started incurring loss on milk purchased
from outside. Side by side the price of skim milk powder also sky rocketed. The
combined effect of these was the heavy loss to union in 2007-08. Appendix III
shows the financial performance of Union since beginning. Unions sales turnover
from products has always been below 10% since beginning, since Union never
had surplus milk after meeting demand for liquid milk. The Union has a wide
range of products listed below.
Toned Milk(3% fat, 8.5% SNF)
Double Toned Milk(1.5% Fat,8.5% SNF)
Cow Milk(3.5% Fat,8.5% SNF)
Ghee
Butter
Ice-cream
Curd
Ice-lolly
Milk-lolly
Peda
Sambharam(buttermilk)
Yoghurt
Shrikand
The milk and products except ice-cream and milk-lolly are marketed under the
brand name "milma". Milk is marketed in only in sachets and the variants of
milk marketed are
Toned milk 70-75% of sale
High fat milk (4.5/85 and 3.8/9)
Double toned milk
Cow milk(Milma jersey)
TRCMPU renders services at Society level in many respects


TRCMPU Ltd. has adopted an integrated approach for development of Primary milk Producers's Co-
operarative societies and its farmers in the four districts of Kerala.
1. Provides Supervisory services to the Society
2. Provides audit related services to the Society
3. Union supply register,milk testing equipments and chemicals to the Societies.
4. Gives financial incentives to the Societies
5. Gives building grant for construction of office building for the Societies.
Average Milk Collection - 38922 LPD
Average Milk Sales - 50700 LPD