Most Indian dairy farmers are small in size who own a small herd of cows or buffaloes to substantially increase their family income. Approximately half of the milk produced in India is consumed by farmers and their families.
If we see the data shared by different market research companies, it shows that Amul holds only 7 percent, Mother Dairy holds 3.7 percent, and Nestle holds 2.9 percent of the Dairy market. The reason behind this is the network created by local dairy farmers who still acquire almost 80% of the milk market.
Another failure reason for Danone in India is the firm focused on wrong products which include plain yogurt and flavored yogurt drinks. Yogurt roughly stands for 7 percent of the Indian dairy market while the huge percentage and high earning was in ghee.
In January 2018, Danone ended its dairy production in India, however, it did not leave the country. The dairy giant announced an investment of 26.5 million dollars in a nutritional startup and special nutrition food brand, Epigamia. Epigamia offers a long range of dairy products for the urban Indian including flavored yogurt that adds value to the plain yogurt that can be rather easily made at home.
Danone India turnover was less than what they assumed it to be, it did not manage to even sell 10 percent of its dairy products in India, a far cry from its global 50 percent. Meanwhile, two of their biggest competitors Amul and Nestle made nearly 5 billion and 750 million from dairy