Amul, NAFED among promoters of cooperative society for organic products

The Union Cabinet had last week approved setting up and promoting a national-level cooperative society for organic products.

“We had received information that a group of people were supplying butter in huge amounts from a rented building in Phase 3," informed DCP (Central Noida) Rambadan Singh.

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The proposed national-level cooperative society for organic products, to be constituted under the Multi State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act, 2002, will have an authorised share capital of Rs 500 crore, an official said on Monday.

The Union Cabinet had last week approved setting up and promoting a national-level cooperative society for organic products.

The official said five cooperative bodies — Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the promoter of Amul brand; National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.(NAFED); and National Cooperative Consumers’ Federation of India Limited (NCCF); National Dairy Development Board’s (NDDB); and National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) — have come forward to take the initiative of the Ministry to set up an organic cooperative society.

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“The society will have an authorised share capital of Rs 500 crore. It will have an initial paid-up share capital of Rs 100 crore,” the official said.

The official further said that each of these five cooperative bodies will initially invest Rs 20 crore each and they will gradually increase the capital.

The NDDB will be the chief promoter of the proposed cooperative on organic products and its headquarters will be at Anand in Gujarat.

However, this is in contrast to the announcement made by Home Minister Amit Shah in September last year.

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As per a statement issued by the Cooperative Ministry on September 8, 2022, Shah has announced to form a new multi-state cooperative for marketing and export of organic products under the leadership of Amul.

The official said the certified Indian organic product retail sales market is around Rs 27,000 crore and it is expected to reach Rs 1 lakh crore in next five years. Therefore, the government wants to ensure that benefits of this growth reach farmers, the official said.

As per the official, the total size of world organic food market (2020) was around Rs 10 lakh crore. However, India’s organic products export accounted for only Rs 7,000 crore.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday had given its nod to establish three national level multi-state cooperatives under the Multi State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) Act 2002. These were national multi-state cooperative export society; national multi-state cooperative organic society; and national level multi-state seed cooperative.

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The proposed national level multi-state seed cooperative will also have an authorised share capital of Rs 500 crore. However, it will be established with an initial paid-up share capital of Rs 250 crore. It will have five promoters. These include three national cooperatives — Indian Farmers Fertilizers Co-operative Limited (IFFCO), Krishak Bharati Co-operative Limited (KRIBHCO) and National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited (NAFED) — and two statutory bodies — National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC) — the official said, adding that they will contribute Rs 50 crore each.

The KRIBHCO, which has experience in the seed sector, will be the chief promoter of the proposed society.