Co-operative Is Only Logical Model For Dairy Industry, Feels Kurien ...Our Bureau AHMEDABAD

HE ONCE stormed out of a Nestle board meeting in Switzerland. The dairy multinational’s officials refused to take technological help from India as they could not let ‘natives handle a sensitive commodity like milk’. Two years later, the same Nestle officials came down to a dusty town called Anand to do business on Indian terms after they were impressed with the world class facility in the Gujarat town. The man did not forget to shoot back: “So, Mr Kreeber, what do you think of the natives now?” 
  

 This was in 1956. And the patriot, who gave it back to the MNC, later created India’s largest food brand ‘Amul’. At 86, Dr Verghese Kurien, best known as India’s Milkman, still has a lot of spunk. It was evident on Saturday, when the legendary Dr Kurien travelled 100 km from Anand to ET office in Ahmedabad to interact with ET journalists, making his maiden visit to a newspaper office. 

   Straight talk followed liberally with wit and humour. The anecdotes spanned more than half a century of him as the architect of arguably the largest dairy cooperative in the world. The one liners were delivered with panache, be it a comment on his arranged marriage or explaining the success of dairy cooperative in India. 
 

  Not the one to mince his words, he took a producer’s perspective on the recent price rise of commodities including that of milk. “Do you think I am employed by the farmers to lessen the price of their produce?” he asked, when quizzed about the recent spurt in prices of milk and derived products. “I am supposed to exploit the consumer; and I will (exploit them), but not in a way that will create resentment. I have to milk the consumer. And milk them I will, but I will milk them gently,” he added, hinting at the strategy behind product pricing. 
 

  Dr Kurien emphasised on the importance of professional management. “It was the vision of Tribuvandas Patel, (a local politician in the ‘40s) to hire a professional (Dr Kurien) for running the cooperative. And the rest is history.” According to him, farmer power is useless without right management. “What you need is good management with farmer power. Good management gives this power the right direction and thrust. Nothing can stop them then. Least of all, the MNC,” he said passionately. And marketing? “Well, Amul happened because Anand was close to Bombay, and Bombay was a big market.” He could convince the cooperative members of the importance to market ‘brand Amul’. Not just that, he got a sanction of a massive Rs 2 lakh in 1957 for roping in an advertising agency. 
  

 Competition from MNCs does not seem to deter India’s milkman. His confidence seems to stem from the lead Amul has over various other MNC brands in India. “When we started, there were Cadbury, Horlicks, Nestle, Polson. Where are they now?” He is almost dismissive about the imminent arrival of Israeli dairies in Gujarat. “We will take their pants off,” he says simply, responding to a query about the Israeli competition. 

 

   His faith in Anand-model dairy cooperative is absolute. The Anand pattern cooperative movement that was replicated across India created immense value for both the consumers and producers of dairy in India. “Who told you there is one Amul? There are more than 175 Amuls across various districts. Anand is doing very well as are other centres. Some are doing even better than Amul. Both Sabarkantha and Mehsana unions procure more than Anand. Mehsana procures about 20 lakh litres of milk a day,” says Dr Kurien proudly. According to him, cooperative system is the only logical model for milk. “Milk is the only commodity, which has to be collected twice a day, every day of the year. Thus, cooperatives are the only logical system for the dairy industry. About 85% of the dairy industry in the US is run by cooperatives. So is the industry in Denmark and Australia. No other system will work for milk.” According to him, not only is the cooperative logical way to operate in dairy industry, it is also the most democratic way. He holds this belief, as true even though his exit from the cooperative he helped create was controversial. “I was thrown out. They did not want me any longer. I had to resign; I was not given a choice,” he remarks bluntly on his exit from GCMMF. 
  

 In a rare moment of candidness, he acknowledges succession planning problems in some of the organizations he created. “We have problems in the line of succession, these have to be solved. I may not be happy with some (people) but then I cannot do anything. Membership of the cooperative has to correct this. If you elect the wrong man, you have to find the ways to remove him,” he says. 
 

  The leadership qualities, which makes world-class cooperatives are integrity and sincere leadership, he says. “I have worked with people like Tribhuvandas Patel. He was a man of great integrity; Amul was bound to be a success. Sincere leadership, intense patriotism and integrity are needed to build a cooperative (like Amul). People like this exist in our villages and town. But do they get the opportunity? The secret of success is to give power to such people.” 
 

  With his characteristic verve, Dr Kurien points out leaders like Morarji Desai and Lal Bahadur Shastri, who deserve equal credit for India’s freedom. “The Nehru-Gandhi family has taken the credit for India’s freedom. It is justified but then they should share it with leaders like Sardar Patel,” he says adding that this thought was the main reason behind NDDB’s financing of the motion picture ‘Sardar’.