If You Buy Carton Milk in India You Are Stupid
Says the dairy industry and FSSAI
In a not so bizarre move, the Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI) has asked e-commerce sites to de-list/remove plant-based milk products.
Why?
Because non-dairy milk products are masquerading as milk products and gullible consumers are not able to distinguish the difference. And it is to safeguard their interests that the FSSAI wants to do so. So it is effectively telling consumers that they cannot distinguish between soy milk, almond milk, and dairy milk on an e-commerce platform, because consumers just read the word milk and do not process further information like the visuals on the package or what is written, or read reviews. But in that case, isn't peanut butter considered butter by consumers, and being smeared on Pav Bhaji, or a facewash with milk and saffron considered milk, and wouldn't gullible consumers try and drink it? Especially when the packaging looks like this:
This entire drama has happened in other countries and occurs when the regulatory body which is supposed to be the guardian of food standards becomes the mouthpiece of one powerful dairy lobby. Unsurprisingly, the move has come after a push from India’s dairy giant Amul.
But are consumers actually that stupid?
And what kind of consumers are we talking about?
The proposed ban is only across e-commerce and not across retail stores. India is still largely a pouched and raw milk market. Carton milk sales have been seeing a steady growth during the pandemic, owing to concerns of safety and hygiene. With many consumers preferring to shop online, brands like Amul face competition from other players in the category. But are the consumers who shop on these e-commerce platforms as gullible as FSSAI and Amul claim?
It's a question of economics and not consumer gullibility/stupidity. The competition here is for both share of wallet and share of throat, consumers who are buying plant-based milk products are doing so by choice and are not blindsided by the word “milk”. Although interestingly, products like peanut butter and coconut milk can continue to exist under the new guidelines since they have existed for a long time. So if FSSAI is ready to let go of coconut milk why hold on to soy milk?
Because soy replaces milk in tea and coffee while coconut milk does not. So soy milk/oat milk stands to replace the place of dairy milk in a household, while coconut is a supplemental product used for desserts/specific dishes especially in South India.
So how big is the plant-based milk industry?
The plant-based milk market is expected to be $25M while the dairy industry is $140B, so why is this mighty Goliath afraid of a tiny David?
Just to put that in context the Dairy industry is a whopping 5600X the size of the plant-based milk industry.
Much Ado about something.
Dairy and all other animal-based industries are now facing a challenge they had never anticipated.
With the rise of social media, there is now a view of the other side. While we still cannot explain what animals exactly feel, we now know that there is a lot of pain and suffering and there is a quest to find an alternative that feels and tastes like milk but without causing the suffering.
There are also concerns about the environment and health which are making people choose alternatives. The plant-based industry is a growing market and is now seeing strong investment sentiment. It receives news when it gets investments from celebrities, but there is also a steady stream of investors willing to place their bets on a potentially untapped market in India.
With the plant-based industry seeing strong tailwinds in the UK, the US, and some of the European markets, if India responds to this trend there is a massive opportunity for the plant-based industry and a threat for the dairy giants.
The threat is small but the approach the dairy industry is now looking to take is to nip the competition in the bud rather than thinking of diverging its operations and listen to consumer sentiments.
Where does the regulation stand now?
The High Court of India saw this for what it was, an act of coercion.
Ruling against the FSSAI proposal the judge mentioned:
But this will not sit easily with the dairy industry; there are going to be pushbacks given the marketing and legal might. They can be ahead of the curve and control the narrative rather than taking coercive action against a tiny alternate industry. The place of dairy in India is unparalleled, both from a cultural and economic context, but that does not mean its place is set in stone.
So should brands listen to their consumers and innovate or try banning competition on the pretext of protecting consumers from their own stupidity?
