Build brand NE, say experts

Build brand Northeast with the inherent strengths of the region is what speakers highlighted at a Northeast marketing conclave here today.

The focus of the Ficci-organised conclave, Remark, was to help the region attract investors and ensure that local goods and services are able to compete in the domestic and international markets.

The chief operating officer (COO) of Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd, Prabir Banerjea, said the Northeast should create a regional identity with some common factors to build brand Northeast. The identity can be based on four attributes found in the region — natural, fresh, traditional and wild & unexplored.

He said multinationals were attracting consumers with local flavours and it was imperative that the region built on its inherent strengths.

“The region has the potential to become largest producer of organic and naturally-grown horticulture and spice products,” he said.

In spices, it can become a supplier of high value spices to processors, whereas in fruits, it can supply fruits like passion fruit, pineapple, strawberry and kiwi to various markets. In flowers, it can target the metro market and create a retail chain.

He said consumers/customers were increasingly looking at hygiene and convenience and private label brands were becoming the order of the day in modern trade.

Assam health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was the chief guest at the conclave, said marketing should be based on honesty. “There should be a honest admission of facts,” he said.

Referring to Kaziranga, which is a big craze for tourists, he said the authorities should tell the tourists what they could expect and not go over board.

“If you consider human development index, Assam comes in 16th position but what it does not say is that it comes third when one considers last three years and not the entire period after Independence. Even when considering the drop in maternal mortality rate, Assam will have beaten Gujarat when we look at the last three years. Comparisons should be done amongst equals and it should be taken into account that some of them are not historically in an advantageous position,” Sarma said, adding that social campaigns should be backed by ground reality.

Other speakers stressed that the Northeast needed to make right choices in chalking out an effective strategy to market itself.

Though it has many unique goods and products, there seems to be a lacuna in marketing them in national and international markets, the speakers said.

Bejon Misra, a consumer policy expert, said during a panel discussion on opportunities and issues of direct selling that promises made to a consumer must be delivered in the manner he or she wanted.

“The key expectations of the consumers are accountability, transparency, standard, information, non-discrimination, a good redressal mechanism and service with a smile,” he added.

Retrieved from – http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130830/jsp/northeast/story_17288254.jsp#.UiAlgNIqdsk

Taste for organic foods

The lifestyle of software engineer Karan Suri, 37, changed after he underwent a surgery to remove a cancerous cyst in his stomach. After the surgery, Suri decided to purchase only organic foods – rice, cereals, pulses and even pasta – for his family. “One needs to develop a taste for organic foods. But I feel safe that I am eating pesticide-free, natural food.”

Many other consumers have started buying organic foods that have not been farmed using synthetic pesticides and chemical fertilisers. Nearly 62% of high income households prefer organic products due to rising awareness, higher disposable incomes and easier availability in the market, according to an Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) survey. “Organic farming was one of the fastest growing industries last year,” said DS Rawat, secretary general, ASSOCHAM.

A growing list of farm-fresh and organic foods is hitting retail shelves briskly. The demand for them has grown sharply in recent years; in earlier years, they were primarily exported to Europe and the US.

And then there is Tata Chemicals which offers farm-fresh, unpolished dal varieties and besan made from unpolished channa dal, under the Tata I-Shakti brand. The pulses, says the company, are directly procured from reputed Indian farms supported with Tata’s Good Agricultural Practices, or from NCDEX-associated farmers.

Ashvini Hiran, COO consumer products business, Tata Chemicals, said, “Consumers, increasingly health conscious, choose food products that not only taste great but are also fortified with health benefits. To reach out to them and let them know of I-Shakti dals’ delicious taste and quick cooking, we roped in Sanjeev Kapoor, one of India’s quintessential faces for high quality cooking, as our brand ambassador.”

From very few categories, natural and organic foods have extended to tea, coffee, biscuits, pasta and sauces, among others, indicating growing consumer interest. Most big retail chains stock these products, including Godrej Nature’s Basket, Food Bazaar, More, Nilgiris, Spencers and Tesco-Starbazar.

Sresta Natural Bioproducts started producing organic foods in 2004. For the first two years, it found no buyers. “Then retail chain Spencers agreed to sell our brand. Now we sell across 36 cities, growing at over 70% annually,” N Balasubramanian, Sresta’s CEO, said. Sresta works with 12,000 farmers across 14 states.

“Urban, more mature people, 30-55 years old, are the primary consumers who are shifting to organic foods,” said Mohit Khattar, MD, Godrej Nature’s Basket. “The number of categories will continue to grow as people develop a taste for organic foods. But they will not attract many youth customers in the near future.”

Besides modern retail networks, organic foods are also available through exclusive, producer-owned stores in the bigger cities. “Awareness and acceptance of organic products has increased manifold in urban India. Many organic food suppliers are now opening stores across the country,” pointed out Ankur Bisen, VP retail of leading management consultancy, Technopak.

For instance, Organic India, which does organic farming in Uttar Pradesh, is setting up its own chain of exclusive retail stores.

The high prices of organic foods – around 40-60% higher than regular foods – could be a deterrent in runaway growth. Dr. Divya Choudhary, former dietician at Fortis Hospital, said, “I prescribe organic food to most of my patients but they don’t follow the advice as the food is not yet pocket-friendly.”

The cost of production of organic foods over traditional foods is higher, as the yield per acre is lower because the crops do not use fertilisers or pesticides. “As more consumers gravitate towards organic foods, in time, costs will come down,” Balasubramanian predicted.

Retrieved from – http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Food/Taste-for-organic-foods/Article1-1109620.aspx

Tea garden eyes fish boom

Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd (APPL), the second largest tea producer in the country, is aiming to produce 200 tonnes of fish by next year in its gardens in Assam.

The company, which started fisheries in its gardens in 2007, now produces 130 tonnes of fish which is 35 per cent higher than the previous year. The fishponds are spread over 149 hectares in 15 gardens six of which have their own hatcheries.

The average size of a fish pond is 1.5 acres with the largest one spread over six acres. Rohu and katla fish from the carp family are produced in the gardens. Fish are sold at farm gate, local markets and at its kiosks at Hathikuli and Powai gardens in the state.

“Our endeavour is to increase production to over 200 tonnes in the next two years in the ponds and provide quality fish seed to the fish farming community for their yield and revenue maximisation,” Prabir Banerjea, chief operating officer of APPL’s agri business division, told this correspondent.

The fisheries project of the company is the largest in the private sector in the Northeast.

Previously known as Tata Tea, Amalgamated Plantations has its operations spread across 24 tea estates in Assam and north Bengal covering 24,000 hectares and employing approximately 30,000 workers.

APPL production during 2012-13 was 33.54 million kg of tea. The company has diversified into spices, dairies and fisheries. Six multi-locational hatcheries have been operationalised for producing quality fish seed.

“As a testimony to our quality, fish farmers from Nagaon, Sonitpur, Golaghat and Dibrugarh districts have already purchased over 10 lakh spawns and fries in the last few months,” an official said.

“The fisheries project generates significant employment and creates wealth for the local population and provides fresher and therefore more nutritious fish,” he said.

Thorough studies and training were undertaken to implement the fisheries project which proved successful and showed promise. Fish ponds were excavated in areas that have been lying fallow and no ground water is drawn for the fisheries project to ensure that there is no depletion of water table.

The official said based on the success of its hatchery operations, the Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture in Bhubaneswar has appointed APPL the authorised multiplier unit for a new variety of rohu to cater to fingerling requirements of the Northeast.

“We are also working in close partnership with local fishing communities in some districts for knowledge transfer of best cultivation and management practices we have adopted,” he said.

In 2012-13, the fisheries project has generated almost one lakh mandays employment in the gardens.

Retrieved from – http://www.telegraphindia.com/1130815/jsp/northeast/story_17232093.jsp#.Ug2oy9Iqdsl

India’s AEZs now cover 40 agricultural products

Agri export zones (AEZs) in the country now cover about 40 different agricultural commodities spread across 20 states in the country.

All the 60 AEZs have been notified by Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) and have completed their span of five years, minister of state for commerce and industry D Purandeswari informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

The agri export zones are set up on the basis of particular produce / products that are grown largely in a contiguous area for the purpose of developing and sourcing the raw materials, their processing / packaging, leading to final exports.

Thus, the entire effort is centered on a cluster approach of identifying the potential products, the geographical region in which these are grown and adopting an end-to-end approach of integrating the entire process, right from the stage of production till it reaches the market.

The AEZs identified in North-east India are as follows –

Assam: Fresh & Processed Ginger at Kamrup, Nalbari, Barpeta, Darrang, Nagaon, Morigaon, Karbi Anglong and North Cachar districts.

Sikkim: flowers (orchids) and cherry pepper; ginger at Sikkim (north, east, south and west Sikkim).

Tripura: organic pineapple at Kumarghat, Manu, Melaghar, Matabari and Kakraban blocks

The AEZs are expected to converge the efforts made, hitherto, by various central and state government departments for increasing exports of agricultural commodities from India.

These agri zones take a comprehensive view of a particular produce / product located in a geographically contiguous area for the purpose of developing and sourcing raw materials, their processing/packaging, and leading to final exports.

The government had undertaken a peer evaluation of the existing AEZs in 2005 to assess their performance. On the basis of the recommendations of the peer group in 2005, it was decided not to consider notification of new AEZs unless there were strong compelling reasons to do so.

See more details at: http://www.domain-b.com/economy/agriculture/20130805_products.html#sthash.KpCfqaDS.dpuf

The Potato Farming Success of Gujarat’s Banaskantha District

Contrary to NGO stories of exploited farmers and middlemen running riot, Gujarat’s potato farmers have scripted an entrepreneurial success story by teaming up with multinationals and other buyers of their produce.

Parthi Chaudhary is a police official with the Anti-Corruption Bureau, posted at Mehsana in Gujarat. He is in the news for busting records, not white collar scams. Three years ago, Chaudhary picked 87.188 tonnes of potatoes from every hectare of his farm in Palanpur, the headquarters of Banaskantha district. The event, he says, was witnessed by a team put together by the collector, including agriculture experts from nearby Dantiwada University. The buzz in this part of the country is that it is a world record, though a Google search throws up  another claimant, from Bihar, who is said to have harvested 108.8 tonnes of potato earlier this year. India’s best average yield, from Gujarat and Punjab, is 26 tonnes a hectare.

Image: Parthi Chaudhary’s 90-acre potato farm yielded 67 tonnes a hectare this year

Chaudhary treats his 90-acre farm as nature’s manufactory. For him agriculture is an industrial activity which can be broken up into discrete processes that play on the aspects that aid growth and tamp down those that do not to coax the best out of soil and seed. His employees are partners in the venture: They get a share of the produce under the prevalent practice of bhagidari (sharing). To win them over to his management style, Chaudhary has devised a matrix of 100 points. A score of 70 plus gets a bonus; below 50 percent earns a penalty. So far there have been only winners.

We are discussing Lady Rosetta at the Rajpath Club in Ahmedabad. It is a potato variety high in solids and low in sugar, and named after its bashful skin. Chaudhary’s cultivated lady is for Chandubhai Virani of Rajkot’s Balaji Wafers. PepsiCo is also a suitor. (For fries, the varieties are long, not round, like Innovator and Kennebec). The yield this year was 67 tonnes a hectare. Chaudhary says he has 1,400 tonnes in cold storage. At the current price of Rs 14 a kg, the stock is worth Rs 1.96 crore. That is a near 300 percent return in just 120 days on investment of Rs 52 lakh.

Banaskantha has known potato farming from the days of the British Raj, but it is Canada’s McCain Foods, the family-owned global supplier to McDonald’s, and a seller of own-brand wedges, fries and tikkies, that has taught farmers here to grow them scientifically. McCain followed McDonald’s to India in 1998. It worked on potatoes in Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh but found the cold weather inhibiting weight gain and adding sugar (which caramelises and turns fries dirty brown). West Bengal, like Gujarat, has the ideal climate, but plot sizes are too small for contract farming, so it gave up trials about three years ago.

McCain found enormous waste in Gujarat. Flood irrigation was the practice; the water flushed would add up to a 750 mm column by the end of the crop season. But potatoes need moisture, not drenching. Just as much water should be replenished as evaporates from soil and transpires through leaves. Farmers lavished nitrogenous fertiliser to make up for the nutrient leaching through the sandy soil. High humidity brought pest and fungal attacks.

McCain persuaded farmers to use sprinklers, cutting water and nitrogen use by a third. They are commonplace now, aided by government subsidies, and eight-hour rationed power supply to the farm grid. How long the sprinklers should be on is determined by data provided by the company’s two weather stations, one at a spot on the way to Mt Abu (in Rajasthan), and the other at Himmatnagar in Sabarkantha district. Through phone calls and text messages, field staff convey the information to farmers. Other innovations have reduced planting time and energy use in cold storages.

McCain began contract farming in 2006 with four farmers and 16 acres in Badgam village. Today, 900 of them assure it a produce of 4,500 acres. The landholdings in this area are quite big. Half the farmers own more than 10 acres each. But everyone, small or big, is invited, says procurement officer Gopal Dass Sharma, who is known to be free with agronomic advice even to farmers not on contract. The company’s plant at Mehsana has an appetite of 50,000 tonnes a year, most of which is mopped up from within the vicinity.

In November, at the beginning of the potato season, farmers sign a contract pledging to supply at least 10 times the quantity of seed by the third week of March, after which purchases stop. The quality parameters are specified; a detailed schedule of farming practices, written in Gujarati, is provided for each variety of potato. Agronomic advice is also available on call. Farmers get seed spuds for half the price; the rest is deducted from the sale price. If farmers default, post-dated cheques are encashed.

Farmers start with McCain and, like Parthi Chaudhary, move on within a few years, after they get a hang of the art. Often they grow for multiple buyers. Unlike McCain, PepsiCo and Balaji Wafers buy through agents, who are paid a fee for seed supplied and potato procured at a price announced at the beginning of the season. These vendors dip into the open market if procurement falls short of contracted quantity.

Read more: http://forbesindia.com/article/on-assignment/the-potato-farming-success-of-gujarats-banaskantha-district/35747/1#ixzz2b5jELKNv