The free trade agreement (FTA) being negotiated between India and the EU could severely affect India's Rs 3 lakh crore milk processing industry, dairy co-operative Amul has warned.

R S Sodhi, managing director of Amul - the leading dairy co-operative of India - said that meeting the EU's demands while finalizing the FTA would adversely affect the local milk processing industry.

The list of EU's demands includes protection of cheeses like Feta, Emmenthal and Gouda under Geographical Indication protection, which would mean that local cheese producers would not be able to give such qualitative names to their products.

A number of India cheese producers, including Amul, are already using names like Gouda and Emmenthal for their products. If EU's demands are met, Indian producers will have to ditch such names. India's cheese industry is currently generating nearly Rs 1,000 crore per annum.

Sodhi argued that some Europeans milk processing companies are using Indian names like Paneer and Lassi for their products, without any talk of Geographical Indication protection for them.

The European companies also want to export its dairy products to India without providing India with access to its own market.

Arguing against EU's this demand, Sodhi said, "EU wants to export such subsidised dairy products to India without giving access to Indian dairy products to its own market, which have large non-resident Indian population."

The Indian milk processing industry previously raised similar concerns over the free trade agreement being negotiated between the governments of India and New Zealand.