Dec. 8: Purabi, the popular milk brand, is now reaching out to more consumers to improve its market presence. The management is targeting apartment owners in the city to deliver good quality milk.

Purabi is the brand name under which the West Assam Milk Producers’ Cooperative Union Limited (Wamul) markets its milk.

“We are targeting apartment owners to supply good quality milk. We have given them samples to taste and the response has been good. Market teams have been formed to chalk out strategies to reach out to more people,” Wamul managing director Manoranjan Thakur said.

A tripartite agreement was signed between the Assam government, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and Wamul to work out and implement Wamul’s long-term business plan for better procurement, processing, manufacturing and marketing of milk and milk-products and capacity utilisation of the infrastructure.

In the first stage, the dairy plant has been refurbished at a cost of Rs 2 crore to produce good quality milk.

The NDBB has submitted a Rs 5.44-crore rehabilitation plan. The agreement is for five years and both Dispur and the NDDB have agreed to run Wamul according to sound business principles.

Thakur said after the NDDB took over, the plant was producing 4,000-odd litres of milk per day and they would try to increase the production to 35,000 litres per day by the end of five years.

The milk is tested in the laboratory and then payment is made. The producers are now getting good price and the whole process is transparent. “The system will soon go online,” he said.

“We have now 500 producers, up from 115 in the last three months and the target is to have at least 700 in the next couple of months,” he added.

Wamul is also producing good quality cream and paneer. It plans to have milk parlours at 10 places in the city and locations are being chalked out in collaboration with the Guwahati Municipal Corporation.