Holy cow! A 400-cr ghee business

The cow is a key part of Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali empire. Desi ghee is one of the top grosser in Patanjali’s ₹2,000-crore-business. This year, ghee will fetch the group almost ₹400 crore. Now the yoga guru wants to launch a slew of dairy products such as milk powder and butter.

But there’s more to Patanjali’s product portfolio than just dairy. Enter Rajesh Jain, who is in charge of Gurukul Gaushala, a shelter for 400 cows. Here there are organic farms growing maize and potato, mango plantations and units producing phenyl.

Every day, 30,000 litres of disinfectant brand Shuddhi (soon to be renamed as Gonyl) is produced here. The main ingredient is cow’s urine packaged in a formula of pine oil, eucalyptus oil and soap nut. All the units run on biogas. The place also makes biofertilisers and herbicides. A mineral water bottling plant is in production – Patanjali’s Divyajal brand of mineral water will soon hit the market. Also, says Jain, “a bigger cow shelter will be coming up with 1,000 cows on a 2,000 acres at Teliwala, where the jaggery factory of Patanjali is located.”