Saturday, August 11, 2012

Balram Singh Yadav, Managing Director, Godrej Agrovet, analyses the industry in an exclusive interview to B&E

B&E: How will the concept of Food Technology Parks as mooted in the Vision 2015 for the sector be effective in revamping and unlocking the sector?

BSY: The concept of Food Technology Park is wonderful, but it must be noted that raw material is spread over different geographies. Having Food Parks at one place may or may not work in case raw material supply chains are long.

B&E: What do you feel as a company are the major policy changes required by the government so that potential of the sector can be further opened up?

BSY: The subsidies should be increased for establishment of production units. Currently, subsidies being given are very low. The reason for increasing subsidy is to lower the breakeven for these units as value added food has long gestation period and very thin margins.

B&E: Processed food currently forms a very small percentage of India’s exports. How can this scenario be improved with India’s inherent cost advantages?

BSY: To compete in world market, we need to be competitive in cost and quality and both are also dependent on scale of operations which will come in case we can also make food processing successful for the domestic market.

B&E: As a company, how do you see the future for the sector in a 3-5 year timeline and what are the biggest opportunity areas within the sector ?

BSY: We believe that the Food Processing has a very bright future in the long run as cost of food is going up. This will require very efficient use of agricultural produce which is seasonal in nature and has very small windows of availability. The advent of modern retail and increased per capita income will make availability and affordability better.


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