§1What this business is

You heat milk, curdle it with citric acid, press it into paneer, then chill and pack it. Buyers are hotels and dhabas, caterers, sweet shops, kirana shops and households. Freshness and the cold chain matter most.

Capacity: 43,200 kg of paneer a year (50–70% utilisation).

§2Is it right for you?

Who it is for

People with a milk collection network or who live near a dairy.

Who it is not for

Someone without refrigeration and arrangements for daily delivery.

Advantages

  • Demand for paneer is growing at weddings and hotels
  • Milk is easy to get in UP villages
  • A daily cash business
  • Can expand into ghee, curd and khoya

Drawbacks

  • Shelf life 2–3 days — needs a cold chain
  • Competition from, and suspicion of, fake/synthetic paneer
  • Milk prices rise in summer
  • Strict FSSAI sampling

Skills you need

  • Milk testing (fat/SNF)
  • Hygiene & cold chain
  • Hotel/caterer sales
  • Yield control

Why difficulty 3/5: Perishable product — needs a cold chain and daily milk management.

§3Market

Who buys

  • Households
  • Sweet shops
  • Hotels, dhabas, restaurants and caterers

How it sells

  • Dairy shops
  • Kirana shops with chillers
  • Direct supply to hotels and caterers

Good to know

  • Raw material cost is ₹120–140 for each 1 kg packet of paneer (NIFTEM DPR).
  • The paneer market grew about 12.5% a year in 2014–2019; better cold chains and more deep freezers help (NIFTEM DPR).
  • Paneer spoils fast, so it must stay chilled from press to shop.
  • Machinery total in the DPR is ₹10.00 lakh without GST and transport.

§4Raw material & machinery

ItemQtyCost
Milk pasteuriser1₹1.25 lakh
Ice bank tank (IBT) milk chiller1₹1.45 lakh
Paneer press1₹65,000
Paneer coagulation tank2₹70,000
Milk storage tank (100–200 litres)2₹80,000
Boiler (500 litres)1₹1.65 lakh
Material handling (bins, trolley, conveyor, weighing machine)—₹3.50 lakh

From: NIFTEM-K (MoFPI) PMFME Detailed Project Report – Paneer Making Unit (2021)

  • Milk₹35–40 per litre; bought from vendors and kept in storage tanks
  • Citric acid₹55–65 per kg; used to curdle the milk

From: NIFTEM-K (MoFPI) PMFME Detailed Project Report – Paneer Making Unit (2021)

Suppliers in Building Business Bazaar

National Dairy Development Board, Anand · Anand →State Food Laboratory, Port Blair · Port Blair →State Food Laboratory, Hyderabad · Hyderabad →Regional Public Health Laboratory, Visakhapatnam · Visakhapatnam →State Public Health Laboratory, Guwahati · Guwahati →Combined Food & Drugs Laboratory, Patna · Patna →State Food Testing Laboratory, Raipur · Raipur →Combined Food & Drugs Laboratory, Delhi · Delhi →State Food & Drug Laboratory, Ranchi · Ranchi →Food and Drug Laboratory, Bambolim · Bambolim →Public Health Laboratory, Ahmedabad · Ahmedabad →Food and Drugs Laboratory, Vadodara · Vadodara →

In our raw material database

Milk (raw) →

§5Licences & registration

  1. FSSAI licence
  2. Udyam
  3. GST
  4. Legal Metrology

We can do this registration for you

§6Schemes & subsidies

PMFME (the DPR is for it), PMEGP, MUDRA, CGTMSE. Stand-Up India for women/SC/ST.

§7Money

How the investment is worked out: NIFTEM PMFME paneer DPR total project cost ₹16.83 L (machinery ₹10.00 L, misc ₹2.50 L, WC ₹4.33 L; premises rented).

Working capital: Daily payment for milk + credit to hotels; WC ₹4.33 L (CC ₹3.90 L).

DPR 2021; milk prices have risen a lot since then.

How to prepare a loan file

§8Export potential

Confirm the HS code in the DGFT ITC(HS) lookup before you export

0406 10 00Fresh (unripened or uncured) cheese, including whey cheese, and curd – covers paneer and chhena

Export council / board: APEDA

  • Dairy products fall under APEDA's Animal Products group.
  • Fresh paneer keeps only a few days, so exports are usually frozen or long-life packs.

§9Risks — where people fail

  • Milk price
  • Spoilage
  • Adulteration perception
  • Power cuts (chilling)

§1030 / 60 / 90-day plan

A general plan that applies to any business. A plan for this business will be added after research.

  1. Days 1–30: Visit a working paneer making unit unit, ask 10 buyers about price and quantity, and get quotations from 3 suppliers.
  2. Days 31–60: Udyam and the licences you need (FSSAI licence, Udyam), a project report (DPR), and the scheme or loan file.
  3. Days 61–90: Space and machines, trial production, and first deliveries to 10 customers.

§11Who to connect with

Not verified yet

Associations, clusters and training institutes — the directory is being built. Connect

§12Watch

There is no episode on this business yet. Shows are coming soon on the Podcast page.

Want to start Paneer Making Unit?

DPR, loan file or registration — ask us on WhatsApp.

Get a DPR / loan file made

Sources

  1. NIFTEM-K (MoFPI) PMFME Detailed Project Report – Paneer Making Unit (2021)

Data review: 6 October 2026. Spotted a mistake? Report it. For information only — not legal or financial advice.