This summer, Aavin is selling more ice cream than usual thanks to its Madurai dairy unit stepping in. Everyday, around 1.5 lakh pieces of ice cream are being sold across the State, of this one lakh are sold just in and around the city.
“Along with the sale of milk, we are seeing an increase in sale of dairy products, mainly ice creams. The Madurai dairy, which was inaugurated by Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, has added 50,000 pieces of ice cream daily. To ensure availability at all outlets, vans with deep freezer facilities have been rented to carry ice creams to different places based on the demand,” said an official source in Aavin, the popular brand of the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Milk Producers’ Federation.
Aavin’s most popular ice cream product is the kulfi, which is manufactured in seven unions, including Tirunelveli, Krishnagiri, Madurai, Villupuram and Virudhunagar. “These unions have a combined capacity of around 40,000 pieces per shift, and if need be, the numbers can be increased according to demand. Around 10,000–15,000 pieces of kulfi are sold per day. Even during the rainy season, some 7,000 pieces are sold. It has remained our flagship product, and we have a long variant too,” explained another source.
Apart from kulfi, the small cups, priced ₹10 each, in vanilla, strawberry and mango flavours and the chocobar are popular among consumers too.
The milk major has been procuring 34.5 lakh litres of milk a day of which 3.5 lakh litres are consumed at the societies itself and 28.5 lakh litres of milk are sold as milk daily. “We witnessed an increase in the sale of milk after the government decreased its prices. At present, the procurement has gone up by 1.5 lakh litres when compared with last year. The flush season will begin at the end of May and June, through July will be a flush season when we can build up on butter and skimmed milk powder stocks,” another source explained.
