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Business Standard
23-04-2025
- Business
- Business Standard
Amul's revenue touches ₹90,000 crore in FY25 on strong double-digit growth
India's largest dairy brand Amul has seen its revenue touch ₹90,000 crore in FY25 compared to ₹80,000 crore in FY24 on the back of strong double-digit growth across categories. Jayen Mehta, managing director (MD) at Amul told Business Standard, 'We are now aiming for Amul to be a ₹1-trillion brand in FY26 as we expect the strong growth, seen across categories, to continue.' He said this financial year has also started on a strong note due to good demand for summer products like ice creams and milkshakes. Mehta added that Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) saw its revenue at ₹66,000 crore, which was up almost 12 per cent in FY25. The reason why GCMMF — which markets Amul's products across India — has a lower turnover than Amul is because dairies in Valsad, Rajkot, Godhra, Surat, Vadodara and Anand sell their own milk and milk products under the Amul brand but is not reflected in Amul's turnover. Also, Amul's turnover reflects cattle feed turnover in Gujarat which is not a part of GCMMF's turnover. While Amul is known for its dairy, it progressively is making a move towards becoming a foods company and launched products like organic dal, atta (wheat flour), basmati rice, spices among others. In the previous financial year, Amul also entered the US market with its fresh milk and partnered with Michigan Milk Producers Association (MMPA) for this. Under the partnership, MMPA will collect and process the milk and GMCCF will handle the marketing and branding for Amul in the country. The co-operative, started in FY74, now exports its products to more than 50 countries. GCMMF came into existence on July 9, 1973, when six dairy cooperatives came together under the leadership of Verghese Kurien, who is fondly remembered as the Milkman of India. He had come up with the idea to market milk and milk products under the brand name Amul. Currently, GCMMF has 18 member unions with more than 360 million farmers across 18,600 villages in Gujarat.
USA Today
11-04-2025
- USA Today
South Carolina man pleads guilty to illegally selling sperm whale teeth and bones
A South Carolina man pleaded guilty to importing and selling sperm whale teeth and bones, a violation of federal wildlife laws, the Justice Department announced. Lauren H. DeLoach, 69, of Saint Helena Island, admitted to importing sperm whale parts to South Carolina, including at least 30 shipments from Australia, Latvia, Norway, and Ukraine, between 2021 and 2024, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of South Carolina. Prosecutors said DeLoach instructed suppliers to label items as "plastic" to bypass U.S. customs detection and sold at least 85 items on eBay. During a search warrant, authorities seized about $20,000 worth of sperm whale parts from DeLoach's residence. DeLoach admitted to selling the teeth and bones from July 2022 to September 2024, prosecutors said. Sperm whales, protected under the Endangered Species Act and other international agreements, are prized by poachers for their parts and sold in the illegal market. The Lacey Act and Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) are enforced to protect vulnerable species, said Acting U.S. Attorney Brook B. Andrews for the District of South Carolina. "Illegal wildlife trafficking is a multi-billion-dollar global business that endangers protected animals and fuels organized crime," Andrews said in a statement. "We will continue to enforce the Lacey Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act so vulnerable species like the sperm whale are not killed and sold for parts." DeLoach faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the felony Lacey Act charge and a maximum one-year prison sentence for the misdemeanor MMPA violation. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement investigated the case. 'Commitment to bringing justice to those who exploit protected wildlife' Nathan Williams, DeLoach's lawyer, told USA TODAY that DeLoach "regrets his actions and that they are not representative of the otherwise productive life he has led" and looks "forward to getting this behind him." U.S. District Judge David C. Norton accepted DeLoach's guilty plea and will sentence the South Carolina man after reviewing a sentencing report prepared by the U.S. Probation Office. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement Assistant Director Doug Ault said that whales are among the most vulnerable to illegal harvest fueled by commercial interests. "The illicit trade in sperm whale teeth and ear bones contributes to the monetization of at-risk marine mammal populations that America protects through federal laws and international treaties," Ault said. "As part of 'Operation Raw Deal' — a nationwide crackdown on the illegal trade in whale parts — this investigation demonstrates our commitment to bringing justice to those who exploit protected wildlife for profit." Latest incident involving protected wildlife DeLoach's case is the latest incident involving protected wildlife to make headlines. In February 2025, California wildlife officials announced that three people were convicted and fined for the unlawful possession of protected and endangered animals. Their crimes were exposed after two people revealed to plain-clothes wildlife officers that they were smuggling an endangered sea turtle's skull on a flight. "Wildlife trafficking is the fourth largest organized crime in the world, after drug trafficking, counterfeiting, and human trafficking," according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Contributing: Thao Nguyen, USA TODAY Contact reporter Krystal Nurse at knurse@ Follow her on X @KrystalRNurse, and on BlueSky @
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Yahoo
Truck stolen from Ovid recovered. Suspect in theft still on loose
A truck stolen from Ovid on Thursday was recovered Saturday, and one person arrested, but Ovid police said the individual who had the truck was not the subject of a manhunt. "Update!," Ovid police said about 8 p.m. Saturday, "The subject that was just arrested by the Lansing Police Department, in possession of the stolen truck from Ovid, was identified at the jail, by a fingerprint scan. He is not our guy... but, we do have the stolen truck! Thank you LPD!! However, our #2 perp, that stole the truck from MMPA, is still on the run." Ovid police and other agencies have been seeking a man who fled from a home on the east side of Ovid Thursday morning. The man stole a truck in Ovid the same morning and may have been seen Saturday in Dimondale with the stolen truck. The suspect was still driving a white 2015 Chevrolet Silverado pickup stolen from the Michigan Milk Producers Association employee parking lot, the Ovid Police Department's Facebook page said on Saturday in a post that shared photos of the truck and suspect. Later on Saturday, the department also posted that the second suspect was in custody before revising that statement. "Events like this, being fluid, things can and do change. One of the drawbacks to posting too soon....," the department said in a comment on the post. In one post on Saturday, Rousseau asked the suspect to turn himself in in comments on a Facebook update. "If the subject is tired of running, please, give us a call," she said. The search for the man began Thursday morning. Shortly after 8 a.m. that day an Ovid police sergeant went to an address on Warren Road in Shiawassee County, just outside the city limit, to assist the Shiawassee County Sheriff's Office, Rousseau said in a statement Thursday evening. Police at the address placed a person under arrest due to outstanding warrants. A second suspect, a man, fled on foot. The man was spotted on Michigan Milk Producers Association surveillance cameras as 9:39 a.m. Thursday. At 11:15 a.m., police learned a 2015 white Chevrolet Silverado pickup was reported stolen from the MMPA employee parking lot. On Saturday, Ovid police said the person and the truck were seen on security cameras in the Dimondale area. The man appeared to be stealing Amazon packages from a home. Dimondale is about 40 miles from where the truck was stolen, just southwest of Lansing. This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Truck stolen in Ovid recovered by Lansing police. Suspect still being sought
Yahoo
17-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Keeping the Balance: Tlingit hunter fights for shellfish and tradition
This story was originally published by National Fisherman magazine. Paul Molyneaux©National Fisherman The Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 undoubtedly saved some species from extinction. Others, including sea otters, were reintroduced to Southeast Alaska in the 1960s and have rebounded to the point that they are depleting wild stocks of shellfish that local communities depend on. 'This threat the sea otters pose extends far beyond accessing food,' says Heather Douville, a sea otter hunter from the Tlingit Tribe on Prince of Wales Island, in Alaska. 'It jeopardizes our ability to practice our culture, to pass down vital knowledge to future generations, and ultimately, it undermines our way of life. The health of our ecosystems and our traditions are intertwined.' Together with her father, Michael, who drives the skiff, Douville upholds the millennia-old cultural practice of hunting sea otters. To offset the costs of hunting and processing, she started a small business, Coastal Fur and Leather, to convert the pelts to sellable items, because the MMPA prohibits the sale of whole pelts. Douville has harvested hundreds of sea otters over the past two years. 'Lately, we've had commercial divers thanking us when they see us with the sea otters we've harvested on the dock,' she says. 'I don't think it's sustainable for me to hunt at this rate long-term as it's very costly, and because of that, there's little incentive for others to pursue hunting.' With the Southeast Alaska sea otter population now at around 25,000, Douville hunts, in part, to reduce the otter population and restore local stocks of clams, geoduck, sea urchin, mussels, sea cucumber, abalone, scallops, crab, and octopus. 'There are approximately 35 hunters in the Southeast Alaska region,' she said. 'I don't see any change in the shellfish population since I've started hunting, and I'm unsure if our current hunting levels will have an impact. For the shellfish population to rebound, we need to achieve a balance, which includes getting more hunters out there.' Besides embracing ancient Tlingit tradition, Douville is collecting traditional knowledge and data. 'I thought I might as well,' she said. 'I've found they really like clams.' She adds that the largest sea otter she has harvested weighed 99 pounds and had about 20 pounds of geoducks in its stomach. Douville has cataloged the stomach contents, parasites, dental health, and other aspects of the physiology of numerous sea otters and has reams of data. "This extends far beyond just shellfish and fur,' says Douville, pointing out that it is about maintaining a relationship more than 10,000 years old. 'Tlingit means People of the Tides,' she said. 'We have always hunted sea otters to keep them out of the intertidal zone and protect the resources we depend on. It's about keeping the balance.' Paul Molyneaux is the boats and gear editor for National Fisherman magazine.
