RCDF Told High Court Informal Channels Handle 80% of Rajasthan’s Marketable Milk
Additional Advocate General Mahi Yadav presented figures on behalf of the Rajasthan Cooperative Dairy Federation (RCDF) to describe the scale and distribution of the state’s milk market. The data put Rajasthan’s annual milk production at about 36m-37m tonnes, equivalent to an average daily output of nearly 1,000 lakh litres, or 100m litres.
About half of that daily production—roughly 500 lakh litres—is consumed at farms and in rural households, according to the figures. The remaining 500 lakh litres is treated as the volume available for wider commercial trade. This distinction formed the basis of RCDF’s account of its remit before the court.
RCDF said around 400 lakh litres of the commercial surplus, or 80%, is collected, moved and sold through unorganised channels. The category includes local milkmen, known as doodhiyas, sellers of loose raw milk, roadside sweet shops without certification and small private collection networks.
These operators largely function outside automated testing and cold-chain supervision, the federation said. The description covered the channels through which the bulk of the marketable surplus reaches consumers or businesses, rather than the licensed and cooperative organisations included in the organised dairy sector.
Licensed private corporate dairies and state-backed cooperatives together collect and market approximately 100 lakh litres a day across Rajasthan. That volume represents the organised portion of the commercial market described in the data submitted to the High Court.
RCDF’s cooperative network operates under the Saras brand and procures and processes between 40 lakh and 45 lakh litres daily. The federation said this network uses standardised chilling facilities and quality-verification systems. The figures presented therefore placed RCDF’s own daily handling below the total volume managed by all organised dairy operators in the state.
