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Harish Damodaran
Vinod Mathew

NEW DELHI/AHMEDABAD, July 1

THERE is no dispute over the use of the `Amul' brand by the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) and neither is there any possibility of the Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union (which technically owns the brand) breaking away from the federation.

Stating this to Business Line, the GCMMF Chairman, Dr Verghese Kurien, said that under the agreement entered by the federation with the Kaira Union two years ago, the former exercised the right for `unfettered use' of the Amul brand.

"While the Kaira Union is the brand owner, the GCMMF is the brand manager. The federation enjoys unhindered right over the use of the brand and the Kaira Union only has to be kept informed. Further, GCMMF pays a token annual royalty of Re 1 to the union for using its brand'', he noted.

Dr Kurien said that for over quarter of a century since the GCMMF's establishment - the federation began functioning in April 1, 1974 - there was not even a documented agreement with the Kaira Union over the use of the Amul brand.

"We never saw any need for it because GCMMF was set up based on mutual trust and principles of co-operation. It was recognised from the very beginning that there was a need for a federation to market the milk of all unions in the State and make use of the already established brand name of Amul. The agreement merely gave legal letter to this spirit'', he added.

Moreover, GCMMF officials pointed out, that the real purpose of signing a formal brand usage agreement with the Kaira Union in 2000 was to protect against infringement by outside parties. GCMMF is, in fact, currently fighting a case in the Gujarat High Court against a undergarments manufacturer, Jayjee Industries Ltd, for using the Amul brand name on its products.''

Had this threat not existed, we would not even have thought in terms of drafting an agreement between the two parties'', they observed.

According to Dr Kurien, there was no truth in reports of the Kaira Union severing ties with the federation. "Neither in the Union's Board meeting on June 26 nor in its Annual General Meeting on June 28 was any resolution passed to this effect. There may be certain vested interests who are keen to destabilise and politicise the present system, which works to the benefit of all the unions and, more importantly, the milk producers themselves'', he said.

The Vice-Chairman of the Kaira Union, Mr Ram Singh Parmar, too, claimed that there was no major dispute between the Union and GCMMF and "we have sorted out the matter entirely''. The Kaira Union Chairman, Mr Rameshbhai Patel, had also attended GCMMF's AGM at Anand and "nobody bothered to even raise the issue there''.

Insiders feel that a possible source of underlying tension between GCMMF and the Kaira Union may have to do with the latter experiencing some sort of a "crisis of identity". Despite being synonymous with the so-called white revolution and owner of the Amul brand, the Kaira Union is today only one among the State's 12 district milk producers' unions.

Adding to this apparent sense of insecurity has been the fact that the Kaira Union, in recent years, has seen its dominant status challenged by other unions. During 2001-02, GCMMF's member unions put together procured 45.87 lakh litres per day (LLPD) of milk per day, with the leading contributor being Mehsana (11.15 LLPD). Kaira was a distant second (6.88 LLPD), followed by Banaskantha (6.86 LLPD), Sabarkantha (6.18 LLPD), Surat (5.29 LLPD), Baroda (2.44 LLPD), Panchmahal (2.01 LLPD), Valsad (1.83 LLPD), Ahmedabad (1.15 LLPD), Gandhinagar (1.05 LLPD), Rajkot (0.81 LLPD) and Bharuch (0.24 LLPD).

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