ICAR-NDRI Convened a Workshop to Expand Dairy Exports
The workshop, titled Entrepreneurship in the Dairy Sector: Opportunities, Innovation, & Enterprise Development, is being held at the ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI) in Karnal. Participants include dairy exporters attending in person and online, as well as researchers, entrepreneurs and other representatives of the sector. The programme is focused on increasing India’s participation in international dairy trade.
Dr Dheer Singh, the institute’s director, described opportunities and structural obstacles connected with overseas shipments at the opening session. He said the domestic dairy industry should work to reduce reliance on imports while increasing exports. He also said research and development by academic and scientific institutions should be linked to commercial feasibility and market requirements, with applications for both primary producers and processors.
The first day included a consultation on India’s dairy-export system organised by NDRI’s Division of Dairy Economics, Statistics & Management. Agricultural economists P.S. Birthal of the Research and Information System for Developing Countries and Anjani Kumar of the International Food Policy Research Institute co-chaired the meeting. It examined policy changes related to non-tariff barriers and sanitary requirements in foreign markets.
Dr Birthal delivered a keynote address on technological and institutional change. Rajesh Chatterjee, founder of Milkio Foods, led a technical session for prospective exporters. The session covered overseas regulatory compliance and the distribution channels used in international markets.
The programme extends beyond established bulk products such as skimmed milk powder and ghee. Its technical sessions address commercial opportunities for camel-milk products, artisanal and specialised cheeses, branding, functional packaging and the management of intellectual-property rights. Dr Subhasis Mandal, head of DES&M and the workshop’s organising secretary, said that bringing students and researchers together with market practitioners could connect laboratory work with commercial implementation abroad.
The organisers presented the event as part of a wider effort to treat dairy as an export-oriented agribusiness rather than mainly as a rural livelihood activity. The source said that environmental and herd restrictions in Europe and North America were changing international supply routes. It also identified research cooperation, private-sector trading activity, quality standards and product innovation as components of the system being developed for international dairy sales.
