BHUBANESWAR: EDIBLE oils major Cargill India has announced intentions of aggressive expansion across the country with South India being the focus.
The manufacturer of popular oil brands of NatureFresh, Purita and Gemini, Cargill is keen to take the acquisition route even as it is exploring opportunities for setting up its own manufacturing unit in one of the Southern states. The impetus being the acquisition of Rath Vanaspati brand from Agro Tech Foods earlier this month.
“Moving down South and providing the people with a brand of oil of their own dietary preference has become a priority. We have begun evaluating the market and moving forward,” Chairman Cargill India Siraj Chaudhary said here on Thursday.
The company also launched NatureFresh Shakti, a new refined palmolein oil fortified with vitamins, specifically for the Orissa market.
Orissa is the largest palmolein oil consuming state in the country with the oil accounting for around 40 to 50 per cent of refined oil usage, Chaudhary said.
Cargill India has three edible oil refineries at Paradip in Orissa, Kandla in Gujarat and Kurkumbh in Maharashtra.
The company has a production capacity of 3,500 tonne per day. The company accounts for 15 to 20 per cent of the edible oil market in the country but commands over 30 per cent share in Orissa.
The greenfield edible oil refinery at Paradip, the first in the State, has been upgraded at an investment of `120 crore over two phases to increase the production capacity to 3 lakh tonne per annum. It primarily churns out soyabean, palm and palmolein and vanaspati along with hydrogenated fats.
“When Cargill set up the plant in 2004, questions were asked. But the favourable industrial atmosphere and a cooperative State Government has led it to the position of top manufacturing unit of the company.
While we are planning to expand our portfolio and introduce new products like rice bran oil, the Paradip refinery would be shouldering the bulk of the load,” Chaudhary added.
The company is also set to diversify into corn milling adding another product range to the basket of edible oils, grains and oil seeds, animal nutrition and flavouring agents.
The company has identified two potential regions for the milling unit either in the Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka belt or Bihar-West Bengal belt.
