The evolution of India’s Dairy Segment and how SIG’s aseptic packaging solutions align perfectly with it

India is the largest producer of milk in the world, supplying 22% of the milk consumed globally. In 2021 itself, India produced a staggering 199 billion litres of milk, making the Indian dairy market one of the largest and fastest growing industries in the world. Having been a milk-deficit country that used to import milk from other countries only a few decades ago, the journey of the dairy sector in India is an intrinsic part of the country’s own journey of growth and evolution.

How it all began

The establishment of the National Dairy Development Board in 1965 set off the explosive proliferation of India’s dairy sector. On 13^th January 1970, the board launched the largest-ever dairy development program in the world, Operation Flood, to enhance India’s milk production. By 1998, the journey had peaked, and India became the largest milk producer in the world, surpassing even the US. Since then, India’s per capita availability of milk has more than doubled, during 1991-2018 at 4% CGR.

But this journey wasn’t of milk alone; the transformative evolution also permeated into consumer patterns and preferences, in terms of variety of products or packaging, volumes, and more. Today, 46% of the milk produced in the country is used for self or local consumption, with 37% sold in the unorganised sector, and only 17% in the organised sector. What’s more, only 10% of the total quantity of packaged white milk and 23% of flavoured or fermented milk produced in India, is sold in cartons, with pasteurized plastic pouches being the most common packaging method.

Aseptic Cartons – A gamechanger

This shows the incredible potential for growth in the dairy segment in India, especially when it comes to aseptic cartons. Not only do they help prevent wastage and pollution, they also come with a wide range of benefits, including longer shelf life, sterility, and convenience, ease of storage, transportation, branding potential, and more. The Covid-19 pandemic further hastened the growth in volume sales of packaged milk in 2020, with consumers prioritizing safety and sterility, along with storability. As a result, the dairy packaging sector grew by 8% in 2020 to reach 53.3 billion units, with manufacturers and consumers increasingly favouring aseptic packaging for milk and milk products, on a country-wide scale.

SIG’s proven track record

With a vast and robust experience as a global dairy packaging solutions provider, SIG India is uniquely primed to leverage the incredible potential of the Indian dairy market. Its wide range of carton packs, filling machines, and technology, are driven by innovation, sustainability, and a keen eye on evolving customer needs and preferences. In 2021, Amul, one of India’s biggest dairy product manufacturers, commissioned the very first high-speed portion pack filling line with closure in the country, with a speed of 24,000 packs per hour. Today, SIG’s combismile packs containing Amul Lassi adorn countless store shelves, all across the country, immediately standing out for their aesthetic as well as functional appeal!

Having established its presence in the white milk and family segment with OMFED, KMF, Milky Mist, and now Amul, the characteristic flexibility of SIG has been a strong proponent of its growth in India. From combiblocSlimline and combiblocXslim to combiblocMidi, combistyle, and combifitMidi, SIG offers a whole array of portion packs and volumes, including larger packs of 1100ml, 1000ml, 750ml, and 500ml, as well as an extensive range of smaller packs from 80ml and 90ml to 180ml, 200ml, 250 ml, and more! For SIG’s most recent mega project with Milky Mist, the aseptic major provided three fillers to suit the three distinct consumer needs – one for standard value offerings with the widest range of pack sizes, one for premium on-the-go consumption, and another for premium as well as at-home usage.

Focus on Indian dairy segment

The company is on a strong growth track in the dairy segment in India, collaborating with leading producers and brands, processing suppliers, and targeting tier-2 cities with its CFA 1212 filling line. Haldiram’s Nagpur, India’s leading ethnic snack-food giant, is also leveraging SIG’s pioneering filling machines for aseptic carton packs to launch its own line of dairy products, having set up a massive dairy manufacturing facility for long shelf-life dairy products. With a high speed of 24,000 carton packs per hour, SIG’s CFA 1224 filling machine for combiblocXSlim carton packs, are perfectly suited to help the brand expand and grow over the next few years.

Sustainability at its core

Government food safety initiatives and efforts to reduce plastic packaging are providing an even greater push to the aseptic carton sector in India, and it is only set to grow even further in the years to come. SIG India is perfectly positioned to leverage the same, with its fully recyclable cartons made using paperboard from FSC^TM-certified sources (licence code: FSC^TM C020428) and aluminum obtained responsibly from ASI-certified sources. Furthermore, its innovative combibloc ECOPLUS and SIGNATURE 100 formats are completely free of an aluminum-layer, and its drinksplus portfolio enables the filling of beverages with particulates, like milkshakes with pieces of dry fruits or nuts. Together, the exceptional flexibility, cost efficiency, speed, format variety, and host of benefits offered by SIG’s packaging system and technology, will help it play a key role in India in the diversification and evolution of dairy products, as well as the sector as a whole.