Heritage Foods Vows To Empower Women In Dairy Sector

By enabling financial independence, skill development, and leadership, we are driving lasting change. When women succeed, families prosper, communities grow, and the nation thrives: Brahmani Nara

In its International Women’s Day salutation, Heritage Foods hailed the role of women farmers and franchisees run by women, who are integral to its direct milk procurement network. The company procures its milk through village levels procurement centres which are run by rural entrepreneurs as franchisees. Today, nearly 40 per cent or 1493 of the 3900 village -level procurement centres are run by women entrepreneurs.

Nearly a third of all milk procured by Heritage Foods is produced by around 60,000 women farmers. Heritage Foods catalyses this rural transformation by injecting nearly Rs. 200 crore of easy-terms loans to the village-level entrepreneurs, a large part of which goes to women dairy farmers, which is in line with the company’s objective of empowering women and farmers.

Some of their other women-centric initiatives include: Structured capacity-building and leadership programs to equip women with essential business and technical skills.

• Encouraging women-led leadership by appointing them as Heritage procurement representatives (HPRs) and ensuring greater decision-making power in dairy procurement.

• Nearly 100 out of the 400+ ‘Heritage Happiness Points’ or sales and distribution franchisee units, which is the fastest growing distribution channel for the company, are run by women entrepreneurs.