The marketing efficiency of different varieties of liquid milk has been worked out in a Co-operative Dairy Plant of Tamil Nadu, based on the data collected from this plant for the financial year 2001–2002. The marketing efficiency of selected liquid milk varieties have been worked out by Shepherd's formula and constraints faced by Co-operative Dairy Plant in milk procurement, processing and distribution of dairy products have been analyzed by tabular analysis method. The per litre marketing cost, marketing margin and marketing efficiency have been found respectively as Rs 3.32, Re 0.58 and 0.17 for toned milk, Rs 3.48, Re 0.79 and 0.23 for standardized milk, and Rs 4.12, Re 0.69 and 0.17, for full cream milk. The study has concluded that production of higher quantities of value-added dairy products like standardized milk is highly profitable and more market efficient than that of other dairy products to the dairy plant. The major constraints for Cooperative Dairy Plant have been identified as selling of milk to private milk vendors by some of the members; under-utilization of transport vehicles, chilling centres, and dairy plant at manufacturing level; and higher sales commission to the agents, wholesalers and retailers. There is a need to explore the possibility of increasing the marketing efficiency of toned milk and full cream milk by minimizing the identified constraints in the valueaddition chain. The paper has suggested development of the co-operative dairy industry in a sustainable manner by formulating a long-term vision and effective strategy for sales promotion, quality control, and consumer-oriented market research and development.
