Wednesday, 14 April 2010

Investment Opportunities in Indian Food & Agri Business Sector

Here is a summary of my talk at the BRIC-IBSA Business Forum in Rio De Janeiro on 14 April 2010


Investment Opportunity in Indian Food & Agri Business Sector is founded on Four Pillars

  1. Large Sector with further tremendous upside

  2. Indian Consumer is seeking new products

  3. Production system has potential to supply those new products

  4. The Business environment is very conducive


Pillar 1: Large Sector & Further Upside

  • Size > US$ 200 Billion

  • 50% of household expenditure is on Food

  • 50% of workforce is engaged in agriculture

  • That rest of the economy is outgrowing agriculture, is a signal for investment opportunities in agriculture

Pillar 2: The Consumer Dimension

  • More than 1 billion consumers

  • Rising incomes & rapid urbanisation changing the profile of consumption

  • Global experience: US$ 1000 per capita is the sweet spot for shift in food consumption patterns, from basic to value added food

  • Consumer is looking for new value: quality, variety, safety, convenience etc.

  • Besides this domestic opportunity, there are export prospects too in several products

Pillar 3: The Production System

  • Large arable area > 150 million ha

  • Rich & diverse agro climatic zones

  • Characterised by small farmers

  • Good scope for productivity enhancement through technology induction

Pillar 4: The Business Environment

  • Significant private participation after policy reforms in the last decade

  • Traditional farm labour seeking new jobs

  • Large infrastructure investments in the recent past: roads, telecom, irrigation etc

  • Thrust area for Government as a strategy for “inclusive growth”

The Investment Opportunities

  • Innovation at the consumer end of the chain (Processing, packaging, retail formats)

  • Effectiveness at the farmer end of the chain (Productivity, quality - pre & post harvest, labour saving technologies)

  • Efficiency along the whole chain (Integration, coordination, infrastructure)

  • Cross BRIC-IBSA collaboration imperative (Food Security, Climate Change)

3 comments:

  1. Sir, I want to know why our growth in rural market has not reached up to the mark after doing all sorts of research on the above mentioned things. Where are we still lacking? Is it education to the rural people or our capacity to reach them?are we still following old thumb rules ,i.e echouple that you have initiated two decades back, or any other programme? I would love to read your answers on the above questions.

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  2. @knight27: I believe, pace of reforms is the reason. Do read "Reform to Re-farm" at http://bit.ly/ac7yc9

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  3. This blog r so informatics.all kind of Business Opportunities India provided this blog.... thanks for this kind of information..


    Saurabh Singh

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