Agro & Food Processing November 2017

India's Only Monthly News Magazine, Portal & App For Agro, Food & Allied Industries

13 TH

VOLUME

GST ?

Vol 13 Issue 01 November 2017 100/-

Celebrating

13 Years

Agro & Food Processing

GST Rate for restaurants slashed to 5% Will dining out really get cheaper

Fortified food The missing gap in Indian food industry

Genetically Modified (GM) Mustard issue in India

An opportunity knocking on the door

Indian Mithai & Namkeen Industry on the Rise Follow us on: www.facebook.com/foodprocessing.india

Get updates : Twitter@BeveragesFood

The natural flavor called vanilla

The vanilla harvest, its market fate and ice cream

Join us : Agro-FoodProcessing India

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CONTENTS 10

GST rate forrestaurants slashed to 5 per cent

44 Fortified food – The missing gap in Indian food industry

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India n Mith ai & Na mkeen Industry on the Rise

HRS showcases comprehensive F & B processing technology 49 at Gulfood 2017 5200 kg of chilled ready meals in 90 minutes / cycle!

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The Genetically Modified (GM) Mustard issue in India

The Emerson Cup 2017 Award – Celebrating The 51 10th Anniversary Of The Competition Contract Manufacturing for Candies Anuga 2017: The clear number one for the global food industry More Than A Brand Change

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The Foreign Direct Investment

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The natural flavor called vanilla

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India received $10 bn investment commitment in food processing industry ACE Technologies introduces trendsetting Labelling technology in F& B industry Raw-material sourcing and creation of agrilinkages needs more investment

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PepsiCo and Coca Cola losing share to local rivals in India

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Lack of policy hinders the Organic farming in India

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EDITORIAL

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I Editor Manzar Aftab Naqvi Group Editor Firoz H. Naqvi firoz@advanceinfomedia.com Consulting Editor Basma Hussain Graphic Designer Naved H. Kazmi naved@advanceinfomedia.com Advertisement Executive Anjali Mane anjali@advanceinfomedia.com Circulation Seema Hayat Shaikh seema@advanceinfomedia.com Delhi Sayyed Shahnawaz +91-8375034558 Gujarat Brijesh Mathuria +91-99245466999 Genreal Manager Gyanendra Trivedi Marketing & Circulation Office

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ndia is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and has jumped 30 ranks this year in the World Bank Doing Business rankings. Adding further accolades to this realization is the food processing industry, which has been much highlighted lavishly after the international event organised by Ministry of food processing – World Food India, 2017.

Food Processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal who was the brain behind the event achieved great reverence after overwhelming success of the event, during which around $11.25 billion investments were committed in the country’s food processing sector, and with government funds put together, the total investments signed have reached $18.84 billion. Of which, about $2.5 billion worth of MoUs have been signed between state governments and stakeholders, with Punjab and Haryana getting bulk of the investment. The US, the UAE, Germany, the Netherlands and France have announced big amount of investments in the country’s food processing sector.

A lot of homework has gone into it making Indian food processing premier and a lot of work will get done with investments that will benefit 2 million farmers and create more than half million jobs. Farmers are the “Annadatas” who are in severe need to be leveraged so as to enhance agriculture, the backbone of Indian economy.

The Indian food services market is set to grow at 10 per cent annually to reach Rs 5.52 lakh crore in next five years, according to the FICCI-Technopak report. It has highlighted fact that the food sector has emerged as a high-growth and high-profit sector due to its immense potential for value addition, particularly within the food processing industry. Food services sector is expected to have generated direct employment for 5.5-6 million people that is expected to increase to 8.5-9 million by the year financial year 2021. Further, the food services market in India (organised and unorganised) is estimated at Rs 3.37 lakh crore in 2017.

Though Coca Cola and PepsiCo have promised huge investments in India but the their market seems to dented for now as they have been losing share to local rivals, including Parle, Dabur and ITC even as the global soft-drink giants introduced more fruit-based and healthier products to reduce their reliance on sugary sodas.

The aerated drink giant’s local rivals said that their rising share is due to their better understanding of Indian consumer preferences. But what I think is that, the consumers are graduating from synthetic-based products and now want those with natural content and shifting consumer tastes are prompting beverages giants to find ways to diversify away from traditional soda and high-calorie juice.

As Indian government has urged large domestic and global food companies to develop lowcost nutrition products, Amway plans to expand their business in India as it is exploring a range of options to best service the needs of Indian consumers at reasonable costs.

Nutraceuticals is a $200 billion industry worldwide and in India it is growing at 20 per cent with revenue of $2 billion with potential to reach $6 billion by 2022. Amway urges that it has the ability to fulfill India’s nutrition gap story via its functional food like Nutrilite.

As a matter of fact, companies such as PepsiCo and Nestle are already developing lowcost, healthy products in India. PepsiCo has introduced entry-level Quaker Oats sachets and through a joint venture, Tata GlucoPlus water, while Nestle is pushing fortified Maggi seasoning at low-unit prices.

Talking about trade and sale, let’s talk about China that is ironically interested in buying Indian food products nowadays. Till now, we have been gargantuan consumers of Chinese merchandises, food items, harvest, goods etc., be it anything, as globally the markets are flooded with Chinese products. But this time China is going gaga over Indian products.

Indian masalas are spicing up the Chinese palate like never before with large numbers of them buying Indian food products during the annual shopping event, the Singles Day. The shopping carnival saw online markets doing business exceeding $30 billion as millions of consumers bought a wide range of goods. Indian grocery items, ready-made food and Ayurvedic cosmetic brands like Amul, MDH Masala, Gits, Tata Tea, Haldiram’s, Dabur, Patanjali and Himalaya were snapped up on Alibaba’s Taobao.com, JD.com and several other internet marketplaces.

The main reason for this is that, the quality of Indian spices like cardamom and cumin seeds is far superior in India as compared to those sold in local Chinese markets. People start realizing it once they use them. Turmeric has become very popular in China, and thus creating a space for Indian food items.

Indian Food and beverage is an industry which with right investments, enhancement, research and innovation will touch new height and success. The industry is amicably doing its job and hopefully with government support it will soon become the global food hub.

The potentiality is there, so let’s exploit and make India proud!

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

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DINE OUT?

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GST rate for restaurants Will dining out really get cheaper?

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o we should rejoice that eating out is going to cost significantly low as the GST Council has lowered the tax rate for restaurants to 5 per cent and this new rate will be applicable to all AC and non-AC eating outlets. Earlier, 12 per cent GST on food bill was levied in non-AC restaurants and 18 per cent in air-conditioned ones.

However, restaurants in starred-hotels that charge Rs 7,500 or more per day room tariff will be levied 18 per cent GST but ITC is allowed for them. Those restaurants in hotels charging less than Rs 7,500 room tariff will charge 5 per cent GST but will not get ITC. Why was it done? Well the government

under GST was giving input tax credit to all restaurants, a facility to set off tax paid on inputs with final tax. The Input Tax Credit (ITC) benefit given to restaurants was meant to be passed on to the customers, so as to lighten the 18 per cent GST affliction. But restaurants failed to do so, and taking a firm step, this facility was withdrawn and a uniform 5 per cent tax is now levied on all restaurants without the distinction of AC or non-AC. But will this actually lower our bills? Some industry association members welcomed it and said that revision in GST rate for restaurants is positive, as it would bring down the dining-out cost, supporting footfalls

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

and revenues at a time when most organised restaurants are struggling to grow demand, and in all a win-win for consumers. While others were apprehensive about its feasibility given the removal of input tax credit and said prices might go up as the restaurants might consider an overhaul in their menu, increasing the prices of certain dishes in order to make a profit.

Earlier, a delegation led by FHRAI President Garish Oberoi had earlier met with the GST Council members in Guwahati and had requested them to either bring down the GST rate on restaurants to 12 per cent with input credit or 5 per cent without input

DINE OUT?

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s slashed to 5 per cent

In reality most of the top notch restaurants are hesitant about this decision. Understand hesitant not against! Because effectively the consumer pockets will get a marginal benefit, and not as it seems and will improve spending and increase the propensity of eating out, it remains to be seen if the move will positively impact the bottom line of the business.

the restaurant owners as costs for restaurants include rents, raw materials etc. will increase.

Since they have to pay GST for all this the business will end up getting affected. The margins could get significantly constrained.

For a business, it remains to be seen if the volumes will offset the lack of input tax credit.

The price of the raw material has not been reduced, in fact post introduction of GST the costs of operations and raw materials have actually gone up. The move to remove input tax credit will amount to double taxation and will be inflationary.

So argumentatively if analysed, the removal of input tax credit will create a big problem for

Also this decision to do away with input tax credit altogether may encourage restaurants

credit. Henceforth, the Federation of Hotels & Restaurants Association of India (FHRAI) welcomed the GST Council's decision to cut tax rate for restaurants to 5 per cent.

to do business without bills. This would be contrary to the new tax regime’s objective to bring about greater transparency in transactions.

Actually many restaurants are all set to increase their menu bill as the lower tax rate would balance out the higher food prices. And the 5 per cent rate good as it allows legroom for restaurants who were being threatened by bigger chains or more organised establishments to now sell the same commodity at the same price without letting the customer feel its effect.

This reduction in tax might also become

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

DINE OUT?

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hand, are not affected. They don't have to pay rents and housekeeping and other support services are available to them in-house, which may explain the lukewarm response of the luxury hotels to the move, for they would stand to gain much from the rate drop and lose little from the withdrawal of ITCs. Restaurants had many benefits from ITCs, like not more than 30 per cent of suppliers have been able to register themselves for GST. So there's no ITC that can be claimed for a majority of purchases that restaurants make.

unsustainable for some Quick Service Restaurants (QSRs) which serve economical meals and might lead to increased costs in certain cases. So a host of chains, from McDonalds, and Starbucks to Domino's Pizza, have already hiked the base price, while others such as KFC are planning to follow suit.

On the other hand, many industry bodies believe that implementation of 5 per cent tax is good - Indian independent and professional investment information and credit rating agency (ICRA) is very positive about this step and estimate that dining out should get 7-13 per cent cheaper for consumers with the slashing of rates.

Why? Because most major inputs for restaurants like grains (not packaged), poultry, seafood and vegetables are exempt from GST and the input tax credit available to restaurants was anyway negligible. With most organised restaurants struggling to grow footfalls over the past two years, this bonanza is a welcome relief. Though the input tax credit has gone away, more customers are expected to come in and the hotel industry to grow in general.

On the face of it, this decision also has come as relief to the customers who had complained of the previously high tax rates of 18 per cent for restaurants with air-conditioning and 12 per cent for those without. The National Restaurants Association of India (NRAI), which was lobbying on behalf of the organised sector, had estimated the input tax credit withdrawal would push up menu prices by 6-7 per cent. In contrast, it had told the government that GST had resulted in a small gain of around 1 per cent for restaurants. NRAI members are seen to have moved to challenge the GST Council's action, setting the stage for a possible escalation in the battle.

To stop any erroneous profiting by the restaurants the Union Cabinet has announced the establishment of an anti-profiteering body and has asked consumers to highlight cases of businesses pocketing gains since the launch of GST. The finance ministry decided to withdraw the benefit of tax credit available on inputs as well as on rent after it noticed that the gain had not been passed on to consumers through a reduction in menu prices from July. Besides, it was finding it difficult to implement the scheme and convinced states to go ahead with the withdrawal of tax credits.

Agro and food processing insight The GST Council believes the restaurants are not passing on the benefits of this system to customers and, therefore, not eligible for input tax credits (ITC).

ITC works in a way that all vendors and suppliers who may have earlier been in the unorganised sector are incentivized to come into the organised sector and file tax returns.

All participants in the food supply chain as well as restaurants are expected to pay taxes at reasonable rates. Fair enough.

Withdrawal in Input credits, in my view may only give marginal profit to the consumer but could lead to a outrage in the sector, which is still reeling from the effects of demonetisation and the complicated switchover to the GST system, and the recent Supreme Courtimposed ban on alcohol sales within 500 metres of national highways (the matter finally got settled in mid-July, when the apex court upheld the denotification of national highways by city administrations).

Restaurants in five-star hotels, on the other

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

Also in the new tax regime of 5 per cent, certain critical items, such as processed food will become more expensive because of GST going up from 5 per cent to 12 per cent. Taxes on many such inputs have gone up, and with no ITC cost of running restaurants will go up, leading to higher menu prices for customers..

Moreover restaurants are battling food inflation, rising HLP (heat, light and power) costs and wages, and intense competition, which are buffeting their margins and at the same time stopping them from charging more realistic prices.

The core of GST is the implementation of ITC, which removes tax on tax (popularly known as cascading of taxes). This undesirable tax cascade, impacting the common man has been the bane of older tax systems prevalent before the recently implemented Goods and Services Tax. GST is without continuing ITCs will undermine the spirit and intent of GST and be akin to going two steps behind the archaic tax that previously existed.

This move could also be very confusing for customers as prices of goods will go up despite a fall in tax rates.

Also from my point of view, if the bill of eating out goes down because of 5 per cent tax, with menu rates being controlled and sensible. Along with the restaurant having no input credits, the restaurants will end up compromising on other factors, like the range of hospitality will slush, the ambience will be affected, hygiene reduced, workforce derelict and services becoming substandard, on whole the restaurant may be compelled to make compromises.

Now, a larger question: Would you not want a restaurant to keep that margin so that they make you better food, train its workforce better, and improve services? You pay not just for the food, but the experience.

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COVER STORY

n e e k m a N & i e a s i h t i R e M h t n a n i o d In ustry An opportunity knocking on the door!

Ind

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s foods category is growing in India, several food companies are capturing salty snacks market. Around 1,000 snack items are sold in India spanning various tastes, forms, textures, aromas, bases, sizes, shapes and fillings.

Some 300 types of savories are sold in this country and overall snack product market (inclusive of sweetmeats) is estimated at Rs.25, 000 crore.

The branded segment is increasing at the rate of 25 per cent/annum whereas the entire market is growing at the rate of 7 per cent. Namkeen is a product which is essentially known for three important

things a) Taste b) Quality c) Variation.

Average annual per capita consumption of commercial snacks is 500g. Consumers from Western India are the leading snack consumers, followed by the North. An aspect that leads to quick movement of ethnic snacks is the consumption convenience or consume anywhereanytime factor.

Snacks/Namkeen can be eaten with cocktails, during teatime, as props with regular meals like breakfast or as starters with dinner.

Due to advancements in technology related to cutting, slicing and grinding

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

in food processing equipment, many food manufacturers have replaced their older machines with newer ones that are more efficient and boost their bottom line through higher throughput. Equipment categories include chillers, dryers, feeders, fryers, grinders, homogenisers, mixers, roasters, separators, slicers and ovens.

These machines require cleanliness, gentle handling and precise control of temperatures, pressures, treatment times and other process parameters.

Agro & Food Processing magazine got in touch with some industry players who cater to the snacks and namkeen segment.

They provided their views on trends and challenges that surround this market.

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COVER STORY

16 Kanchan Metals have been fortunate to partner many leading namkeen producers in their quest to automate traditional production processes.

Ragh av Gupta “We have been successful especially in terms of automation of bhujia extrusion, moong-dal frying and portioning of Indian sweets. Salty snacks as a category is growing all over India. Many companies are now going pan-India with their brand which clearly indicates a good volume. Namkeens are also popular all over the country with taste’s varying as per region.”

Market scenario and Product offerings of the industry The Indian Food Industry is one of the fastest growing segments in Indian economy. Within the food sector itself, the RTE including Namkeen & Mithia holds the biggest share. This segment has maximum value addition, not just in monetary terms but also at adding shelf life to the product or ensuring that there is reach from Farm to Fork.

Raghav Gupta, Director of Kanchan Metals Pvt. Ltd believes that their customers add capacity to produce more namkeen & mithais. He said “there seem to be many new entrants in this field as well which indicates that this segment is prospering. Our offering includes complete turnkey process lines for popular namkeen like: sev / bhujia, mixtures, peanuts, moongdal as well as automatic forming and portioning machines for mithais like: peda, barfis, soanpapdi, rasgulla etc.

CEO & MD of FABCON Group, Nishant Bansal said with growing disposable income levels & change in cultural habits, not just the

DINK, but almost across all of society from urban niche

stratas (right to rural) is a

consumer for RTE. This is further fuelled by growing exposure of the market due to infotainment, travel and marketing buzz created by manufacturers by introducing new products on a very rapid scale. Whether it is western snacks like Tortilla (also falling under the category of Namkeen) or items like Baklawa (Gulf Mithia), Indian food giants like Haldirams, Bikano, Bikaji, Balaji, ITC are leaving no stone unturned to let the consumer get taste of newer products.

“At Fabcon, we are at forefront of this development as we leav no stone unturned to offer the latest technology to the Indian food manufacturers. Our state-of-art manufacturing setup in Delhi NCR (Noida) is equipped with latest technology to offer solutions at par to Europe / USA in terms of quality, reliability & advancement. We also have tie-ups and Joint Venture with who’s who of global food equipment manufacturers to offer solutions for manufacturing latest food trends for our food manufacturing friends in India.”

Director of Dynamech Engineers, Ravi Mirchandani sees tremendous growth in sweet & snacks industry, right from 3-years old child to senior citizens in India. Everybody is target audience of this industry, so entire India becomes the target audience and hence this a huge market . “We offer solution for small, medium and big players of this industry, from a small namkeen retailer to big groups. With 32 years of experience in this industry, we have various verticals from Snacks extruders, Dough kneaders, Centrifuges, Potato peeling equipment ,Batch fryers, Continuous fryers(for namkeens, Lentils,Dals,Potato Chips, Samosa, Boondi, Pani poori), Potato slicers, Mixing & seasoning equipment.”

Managing Director of Saurabh Flexipack Systems Pvt. Ltd, Pradeep.

R. Katariya views the growth of Indian mithai and namkeen is great and specially namkeen. “I believe it is the fastest growing industry. We provide hi-speed packaging machines for this industry. We provide machines for packaging namkeens in standup bag with zipper.”

Frequent changes in food preference among individuals have led to increased demand for food products. This changing trend leads to more investment on

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

equipment that will provide efficient output. Shekhar Odak, Director at ODTIN Food Solutions Pvt. Ltd said “this sector is increasingly getting organized due to awareness among the people for hygiene, value for money, government schemes and support. We at ODTIN, offer turnkey solutions for Namkeen and snacks industry right from project engineering, management and machines supply including packaging solutions. Snacks industry includes potato chips, Indian ethnic snacks, frozen food, extruded food like pellets and pasta, RTE.” “Namkeen is a nationwide product with differing taste and varieties, the taste changes with ingredients. In some Ravi Mirchandani areas, it’s spicier whereas elsewhere it’s on sweeter side, in some areas rice is predominant ingredient in some gram flour. We would differ on that we believe namkeen is a nationwide phenomenon.”

New trends observed in the industry There is a demand for hygienic and nutritious food products.

Hence manufacturers need to give the best results so that there is continuous inflow of business. Namkeen consumption is high in Western and Northern states of India and even Southern states have picked up on consumption rate. Also the trend has shifted to using modern technologies from traditional methods.

‘Value for money’ products implemented for sound business practices have enabled their presence across many cities in India.

Therefore, the customer faith in genuinebrands grows and creates a brand name in the market.

There is a growing demand in this segment to cater for increasing volumes but also for variety & quality of products. Further, to meet the stringent food standards laid down by FSSAI & also needed for export to other countries, the need for shift from traditional to modern technologies could not be stressed more. Bansal added that Fabcon has contributed to every segment of Namkeen & Sweets. “We have contributed immensely in modernisation of manufacturing techniques across the board.

This could not have been possible without the immense support from leaders

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COVER STORY

18 India is and will always remain a region dominated market where there will be local players catering to local demands, culture, flavour. But these Nish a nt Ba nsal will also grow from small quantities & number of players to scale. "This is also leading to consolidation where the giants are acquiring the growing companies & brands to establish themselves in these regional upcoming markets & no longer be dependent on the North or East!" of the industry like Haldirams! The encouragement from them & the push to develop solutions that contribute to higher efficiencies is one of the prime reasons that we come up with newer technologies & a big reason behind the growth of the Indian food industry!”

Traditionally, Delhi (North) & Mumbai (West) have been the 2 big hubs (national and financial). However, since the economy opened up in 1990’s, whole of India has witnessed growth. Areas like Indore, Kolkota, Orissa, Patna in Bihar, Eastern UP, North East & South have also come as big hubs of consumption & hence manufacturing.

Bansal believes “Manufacturing hubs in form of food parks are coming up in every state & every few hundred kilometers.

Companies will either have to put their own units or acquire or opt for co-packers that is already happening! At Fabcon, we are focusing on scaling up production at our own base & developing on team of reliable engineers to cater across India & global markets for Sales & after Sales Services.”

Dynamech maintains close relationship with clients to provide them with relevant solutions, and also participate in major Indian and international exhibitions and conferences to expand and build new business opportunities.

Saurabh Flexipack takes efforts to make more sophisticated and more hi-speed packaging machines. They have machines upto 180packs/min and their European partner provide machines upto 300packs/ min.

Also the company has introduced new technologies in packaging machines like Industrial PC control system that will help to analyse the product data of number of

machines in brief and detailed.

Also this technology will help to connect and get the centralised data of productions.

Katariya agrees that western and northern regions consumption is high but seeing this success the trend has picked up in other regions.

It is a very evident fact that as business grows, Indian manufacturers tend to go for further expansion. During initial phase, manufacturer experiences several challenges and opportunities of business expansion and hence tries to address all the issues while expanding the business.

So here the solution is only technology and operation practices enhancement.

Manufacturer needs to attend this hence they require good quality machines in terms of technology and standard operating procedures for manufacturing of food product.

Nitin. M. Aras, another Director at ODTIN Food Solutions stated that ODTIN plays a major role in creating awareness among them regarding new product trend, also help in SWOT analysis for their upcoming business. “ODTIN also use the various platforms for awareness program through different channels organized by government bodies, CII, various chambers of commerce. Also we are going to introduce KMS (Knowledge Management System) on our company website very soon that will have an exceptionally prepared FAQ to satisfy their instant queries.

The low per capita consumption of food in certain pockets offers tremendous Namkeen is well known to each and every part of our geography. South and North East part of India has good demand of Namkeen because Nitin. M. Aras of mix culture. Due to employment and business opportunities, north and west side people spread over the whole country, settled along with food habits and culture. We are getting more inquiries from south side for namkeen, earlier it was limited to their traditional food and banana chips. Now people are more inclined towards Namkeen and potato chips. Even North East region is also having different requirement of Indian snacks, namkeens and pasta.”

November 2017 Agro & Food Processing August 2017

opportunities for food companies. Many companies, including the global ones have recognized this potential and are increasingly investing in India. The Indian snacks market is characterised by a large number of unorganised players across all product segments. This stems from each type of snack being very specific to each region, and hence many small companies cater to that market. These players have a slim portfolio of products, usually of a single category and in many cases only provide traditional snacks items.

They also operate in a small geographic range confined to a single state or city.

The organised snacks market has been witnessing high growth over the last few years. This is because of the overall growth in the processed foods segment, followed by the moving trend towards consolidation of markets. Some of the traditional Indian snacks have fared better than Western snacks.

Quality packaging plays an important role The manner in which a product is packed has an impact in the market. Manufacturers should consider ideas that could improve the packaging of their product, thereby raising the products’ sales potential. Due to excellent preservation and modern packaging one can have authentic Bengali Mithai in Mumbai similarly consumers can have Dhokla in Chennai and Ratlami Sev in Delhi. Gradually, the segment will see a rise because of the rising acceptance of these products in the country. This opens the door of opportunities for several food manufacturers in India.

Dynamech’s Director believes that there is high scope primarily because people are shifting from local shop products like (samosa, kachori, handmade namkeen) to hygienic products as those are made in a controlled environment and packed hygienically, rather than having samosa at railway station, people prefer to open a namkeen packet. Also Gupta agreed on the same note that this category holds great potential for the manufacturers and industry can take advantage of this opportunity.

With modernization & easy option to relocate for jobs, people are moving pan India. They do crave for their home / regional food. This is a growth story & with rampant increase in E-commerce, this need is being easily addressed across country & globally.

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COVER STORY

20 Bansal explained that the role of advancements in manufacturing and packing technologies with advancement in M.A.P has made it possible to offer shelf life which was never thought about earlier. “Quick perishable items also last for years. The demand for non seasonal & products which are not local is increasing & will keep on doing so.”

India is a big geography and based on local environment different challenges need to be addressed like say size of industry and budget.

“Similarly, Shekh ar Odak India has mainly three market segments; rural, urban and premium. Accordingly we should have the technology which can help in survival of business size.

Customization is the only key for the allied industries.

By addition of preservatives, shelf life of any food is enhanced. Odak commented that, “This sector is growing with better transportation conditions. But my opinion is different. Honestly telling, we should have the food of its natural shelf life, without any preservative. For example, if we have a processed food of 3 months shelf life and by adding preservative we can prolong it for 6 or 8 month. Then better to have a food of 3 months shelf life and to maintain this we should have cluster formation of industries. Why should we transport the food for more than 300 or 500 kms? Yes for export, we can use the preservative.”

Challenges dealt by this sector The snacks food industry in India is highly competitive and evolving. Consumers are always tempted to shift their choices and preferences whenever new products are launched or various marketing plans of different brands are introduced. The market needs new and better products in line with those available in western countries. There are some challenges that both manufacturers and allied industry of snacks and namkeen faces. India is a vast country with several small, medium and big manufacturers working for the successful growth of this industry. They have been through difficult days but have survived the storm by giving efficient output in the end.

Kanchan Metals’ Director said it is very important to have solutions for all scales of production. There are many companies

who are still looking for lower capacity lines and thus it is important to have flexible products which can be used for multiple types of namkeens.

Indian food industry for namkeen & mithai has been a regional segment always. There are certain geographies which have their distinct style of taste, form & cater to that particular segment.

Companies like Haldiram Family, Bikaji, Balaji, Bikano, Prataap (Yellow Diamond), Aakash, A2B, MTR, Maiyas, etc recognized their strength & have been able to grow by leaps & bounds in the last 2 decades. Of course, the credit to convert this supposedly cottage industry into full fledged industry goes to few like Haldiram Group, Balaji, Bikaji.

Everyone starts small, but they only grow big when they can read consumer mind & develop around that.

This stands true for food & equipment manufacturers. Consider Bhujia & Moongdaal (Namkeen) & Soanpapri & Rasgulla (Mithai) that have their origins in Rajasthan mainly. But today, they are on everyone’s basket & consumer plate.

As per Bansal, major challenge is to identify the need to offer not just the local flavour, but also take it on national & then global levels. Every 300-500 kms, you see a different food habit. This is Indian culture. They have their own recipes, traditions & manufacturing techniques.

The way forward is to develop systems that suit masses. The smaller players face issues related to capital & mindset of WHAT IF??

What if the new technology changes their product? What if the manpower does not understand? What if they lose control over their age old fashion of doing things themselves?

More What if’s….

Further, with onset of GST, the whole industry is at a level playing field & should be now ready to go big, grow big, and think big. We at Fabcon are ready to address their needs.

Mirchandani said Dynamech had humble beginnings when it began in

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

“It is glad to see that now all over India manufacturing plants are coming up and consumption is increasing. The north Pradeep. R. Katariya east and undeveloped regions are now developing very fast and so is also the reason to increase the consumption of namkeens being ready to eat.”

1985 with very small clients. “That time there was no major player in the market, so all the big players today like Haldirams began with Dynamech Machines when they were also small, as they grew Dynamech grew in product portfolio & market. We are a flexible company and can adjust to demands of various levels of namkeen & mithai manufacturers.”

There are some major challenges like few raw materials are grown in certain regions only and transportation becomes the issue along with cost. “In packaging machines business the challenge is providing after sales service.

Providing services in areas is too difficult and required good team of trained engineers and technicians. Over a period of last 20 years, we built this team and overcome with this challenge but manufacturers in various regions are facing such difficulties,” said Katariya.

Regarding challenges, Odak said that ODTIN has that kind of flexibility in technology where it can attend any kind of business environment. ODTIN’s major strength is customization. Our technical team meticulously work on the requirement as per budget, without affecting the quality and performance of final outcome i.e. food product.”

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COVER STORY

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Recently, we supplied number of machines to one customer for packing 40gms of bhujia. Another customer asked for double output machine in same space, same electricity and air consumption.

After working over it, Kawach twin150 was installed and now we are providing this solution to other snacks manufacturers.”

Client needs and latest innovations for this industry Customer satisfaction is a big factor in the progressive scale of any business.

Whether you are into manufacture, packing or allied segment of snacks/ namkeen industry, clients’ requirements should be fulfilled. It is very essential to understand the clients’ needs and provide them what they require. Regular customer basically means when they keep coming back to you. It just indicates that they are impressed with the products/services provided.

In addition, Gupta said it’s crucial to understand from the manufacturers about their stressful areas because only then can tailor-made solutions be developed.

Kanchan Metals have been successful in automation of some processes of namkeen manufacturing.

Any relationship will last long if there is a connection. Bansal said that if we are not in touch with food manufacturers, we will not only lose an insight into their focus needs, but also we will lose track of what is their vision in the coming times?

What are their key concern / bottleneck areas? Companies should discuss and help in developing solutions & systems that address their need in best possible & economical manner.

Fabcon have always had pride in addressing key concern areas of their customers. In the last 40 years, the group has done many such innovations. The key ones in last few years are: 1) Localisation of key Equipment was 100 per cent dependency on foreign suppliers.

We have formed JV with companies from US (like Maddox for Extruders & Tortilla lines) & also companies from Europe

(like KMG, Planet Dryers etc) for this.

2) CONTIMIX Fully Automatic Recipe Based Weighing & Mixing System for Mixing Namkeen. The system is PLC based & very intelligent that does away with issues of inconsistency, hygiene, batch processing, man power issues & volume pains. 3) Multi Purpose Frying Systems.

4) Automatic Handling, Storage, Mixing & Packing Systems for Conventional BIKANERI BHUJIA 5) KAJU BARFI CUTTING by using Ultrasonic Cutter as developed in Germany with our partners, M/S Doinghaus 6) Fruit Pulp Based bar & ball moulding system for healthy sweets.

7) Many other proprietary systems which we have developed under NDA for our customers ‘Need is the mother of invention’ exclaimed Mirchandani. “All the innovations like Sev Machine, Dough Kneader, Namkeen continuous fryer, Nylon sev extruder, Boondi extruder, Tilting centrifuge & tilting dough kneader have been developed by Dynamech by listening to the problems faced by namkeen manufacturers at regular intervals since its inception. ‘We hear you’ is our innovation strategy for customers,” said he.

It is important to maintain the relationship with manufacturers as equipment provider. The demands are changing very rapidly from manufacturers in terms of technology and output.

Saurabh Flexipack, MD stated that, “We are bound to meet those demands and the sales team is always in discussion with key customers to understand the demand and fulfill the same. We have invented our KAWACH- twin-150 bag maker that can produce 180packs/min for small packs of snacks.

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

Constant relationship and communication helps in building win – win situation.

Nothing is innovated foolproof right from the beginning. Every time, technology needs some input for the betterment of its objective. It may be pertaining to performance, practice, quality and any others.

Aras stated that “this information we can get through only continuous communication and relationship with our customer. We have done lot of changes in our previous technology based on the input from our treasured customer.

For example; need of user friendliness and repeatability had been addressed by addition of SCADA and PLC electronic system with our process lines. For small, new entrains, farmers we have developed a roster for grains, cereals, nuts, beans etc as a CSR activities from our side. We are in collaboration with some education institutes and universities for equipment development for specific purpose. ODTIN is committed to invest 3 – 5 per cent of turnover in developing such equipment for the society and small entrepreneurs.”

Conclusion The Indian snack market is highly diverse with region specific varieties, flavors, and mixes. Primarily, the snacks market consists of bakery foods, biscuits, chocolates, confectioneries, and traditional savory snacks. Among all these, savory snacks increased its weightage in recent years due to increased penetration of packaged snacks.

The savory snacks are the salty snacks made from natural as well as added colors and flavored ingredients; broadly consists of ready to eat mixes, various kinds of chips, namkeens and related light processed foods packaged or loose, branded or unbranded. The Indian packaged snacks market and especially savory snack has undergone significant change in the past decade with the entry of numbers of national and regional players with their distinctive brands and flavors.

23

GM MUSTARD SAGA

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The Genetically Modified (GM) Mustard issue in India GM Mustard commercialization could have provided a new path for the growth of India’s largest sector — agriculture. Unfortunately it has been frozen for the time being. This is due to politics, misleading information, propaganda and ignorance. GM Mustard could have helped our farmers increase mustard productivity which has been stagnant for several years. Increase in production would have certainly improved the farmers’ incomes and standard of living as well.

Present Situation

Last year, the environment ministry put a summary of safety studies on its website and invited comments. It also took the extraordinary step of making available all the raw data in over 3,000 pages of text for public scrutiny for a month at its offices. The department got about 800 comments which were reviewed

by Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC). Finally, on May 11, 2017 GEAC recommended clearance of GM mustard for commercial use.

But after all the efforts, India now has frozen requests to commercially release of locally developed genetically modified mustard, amid stiff opposition to labaltered food from domestic activists and politicians.

The mustard variety would have been the first transgenic food crop to be allowed for commercial cultivation. But the environment ministry's GEAC has deferred approval despite a panel the ministry supervises giving the genetically modified (GM) mustard technical clearance last year. This basically done of various representations from different

stakeholders, the matters related to environmental release of transgenic mustard are kept pending for further review.

Cotton is the only GM crop currently allowed to be sold in the world's second most populous country where arable land is shrinking. U.S. Company Monsanto dominates the cotton seed market in India, and often faces resistance from local companies over its position.

The environment ministry told Parliament that GM mustard had been recommended

by GEAC to it for consideration for environmental release and cultivation.

The decision on the mustard represents a setback for Deepak Pental and his colleagues at the Delhi University, who worked on developing and testing the variety for years.

GM food has been opposed by activists and politicians in India due to fears that it could compromise food safety and biodiversity. Some experts have also questioned claims that GM crops are more productive than normal varieties.

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

Hindu nationalist group Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh - Hindi for 'national volunteer organization' and the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ruling party also opposes GM food and instead wants to promote local varieties.

Even the previous government, led by the current opposition Congress party, in 2010 placed a moratorium on GM eggplant, also after an expert panel had given its clearance effectively bringing the regulatory system to a deadlock before Modi revived it.

Where did it begin?

GM mustard was first developed by Deepak Pental, professor at the genetic manipulation lab at Delhi University.

Pental, who did his PhD in tissue culture, was attracted to the problem of mustard yield at a scientific conference in Poland in 1987. A scientist there gave him some mustard seeds grown in Eastern Europe.

Back in India, Pental crossed them with the Indian variety. The hybrids that resulted gave better-yield than either the European or Indian Pental crossed them with the Indian variety.

This was not a complete surprise but

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GM MUSTARD SAGA

commercial exploitation of the discovery was not straightforward. The mustard plant is largely self-pollinated and to prevent this, the male part of the plant has to be rendered sterile. Creating a male sterile line is a hard task that had occupied scientists around the world.

In the 1990s, when Pental started work on the problem, Belgian company Plant Genetic Systems (PGS) had already found a solution. Pental’s aim was to find one that could be used in India. The work of PGS was outstanding but they did not patent in India and the original patents have expired anyway.

The science part To ward off competing bacteria, the soil bacterium Bacillus amyloliquefaciens uses a set of proteins produced by genes called barnase and barstar. Protein from the gene barnase degrades the genetic machinery of other bacteria. This bacterium also produces another protein, from the gene barstar, that binds to barnase and prevents self-destruction. When transferred to set of genes expressed in the pollen, the barnase protein makes the plant infertile. But when it is crossed with another plant that has the barstar gene, fertility is once again restored.

Before the 1990s, conventional breeders used a method called cytoplasmic male sterility. This method had its limitations, especially in the restoration of male fertility in the next generation.

It was a neat trick and Belgian scientists showed that it worked in the field. There was one problem left: to separate the plants with the barnase-barstar system from normal plants. For this, scientists use a third gene called bar that provides resistance to herbicide called glufosinate.

If you spray glufosinate on a set of plants, only those containing the bar gene will survive.

So scientists were looking for a reliable method to produce male sterile mustard plants. Belgian scientists solved the problem by transferring bacterial genes to mustard and this method got attention all over the world.

So the three genes together – barnase, barstar and bar produced a male sterility system with the ability to restores fertility in the next generation. Pental and his colleagues found a way to do this without infringing other patents. He got his own patents as well in India and the US. Pental had developed the method by 2002, but it took a long time to be tested in the field. Pental’s lab received generous funding from the National

Agro & Food Processing November 2017 August 2017

Dairy Development Board (NDDB) and the Department of Biotechnology about Rs 70 crore in total.

According to Pental, the resulting mustard is 20-30 per cent more productive than the bestseller seed, Varuna. The Centre for Advanced Research for Pre-clinical Toxicology at the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) conducted biosafety studies on GM mustard. The studies cost Rs 1.4 crore and lasted from 2011 to 2014.

Scientists looked for inherent toxicity of the genes and their products, potential for causing allergies, potential for nutritional changes of mustard, and potential for unintended effects.

The actual experiments were numerous complicated and reviewed by experts from government bodies like the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the Department of Biotechnology, the Indian Council of Medical Research and NIN and Delhi University. About 200 scientists in different fields were involved in the exercise of review. The experiments showed that GM mustard is safe for commercial release.

Technology adoption is seldom simple, and so scientists expect other problems too. The GM crop is resistant to herbicide glufosinate. This resistance is essential for developing the seeds and activists cite use of glufosinate as a reason to not clear for commercial cultivation.

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GM MUSTARD SAGA

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university, developed by a team of Brassica scientists led by Deepak Pental, who has dedicated over 20 years to public research at Delhi University.

Glufosinate is used in orchards and tea estates. In fact, research firm estimates that India uses about 100 tonnes of glufosinate in a year, most of it from China, and its use is going to go up.

Glufosinate is not yet approved for use in mustard fields, but farmers will be tempted to use it for weed control as the GM mustard is resistant to it.

A small number of agricultural scientists have remained doubters of GM technology. India’s most distinguished agricultural scientist, M S Swaminathan, had remained noncommittal and activists had used his neutral stance to buttress their point of view against Bt brinjal.

Cotton farmers have become big supporters of GM technology. But cotton farmers are less than 1 per cent of the farmers in the country and news does not spread easily from one group to the other.

As Indian farmers wrestle with low productivity and infrequent rains, scientists think that lack of good GM technology can be a major handicap in the future. “India can never make its farmers competitive using old technology and new technology is not all genetic modification, but it is an important one.

In fact, if we do not use GM technology we lose an important method to combat food security.

GM mustard hybrid DMH-11 and the barnasebarstar technology will help millions of mustard farmers in India’s semiarid regions to generate newer hybrids with potentially higher yields than current non-GM variants.

There are also allegations that with this technology, farmers will have to buy the seeds every year. However, that has nothing to do with the technology. Even today, farmers buy hybrid seeds (without GM) of crops every year. Even in varieties, progressive farmers buy seeds every season as seed replacement gives better yields, and the cost of the seed is a minuscule part of the total farming costs.

But has anyone ever analysed on the how much the government pays to import edible oil to India to as to fulfill India’s need. India spends a gigantic Rs 66,000 crore on the import of edible oil annually. Meeting the requirement of oil from within the country perhaps requires both right policy interventions and science technology solutions. Genetically modified mustard, is one ‘solution’ to fix the import bill issue.

Let’s look at the oil import status of the 14.5 million tonne of oil imported into the country as of previous year, 60 per cent is palmolein. Some estimates suggest that numbers could be as high as 70 per cent. Palmolein or cheap dirty

Agro and Food Processing analysis on GM Mustard Professional activists, who are opposing GM mustard, are the same folks who opposed Bt brinjal in 2010 and Bt cotton in 2002. Bt cotton was developed by an MNC to control a major insect-pest of cotton, whereas Bt brinjal by an Indian company in collaboration with two agricultural universities to salvage huge losses caused by Lepidopteron insectpests to brinjal farmers.

On the other hand, GM mustard comes from deep within publically-funded Indian

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

palm oil comes from deforestation across the pristine forests in Indonesia with palm monocultures. The remaining 40 per cent comprises soybean, sunflower and rapeseed oil. Rapeseed comprises only a minuscule percentage of the total, showing that India is self-reliant in mustard oil but not enough to feed the Indian population. That’s the import part of the picture.

Concurrently, demand for edible oils has been rising exponentially. India’s vegetable oil imports crossed 14.5 million tonne last year. But ignoring all these facts the anti GM Mustard activist allege that the claim about increase in yield of GM Mustard is incorrect and the people involved in its promotion have no real evidence of better yield or effect on health etc.

People without real scientific knowledge have just created a web of misinterpretations, which is biased and irrelevant. GM mustard was brought in front of GEAC only after years of studies.

To eliminate the doubt created by anti GM squad lets analyse the following thing; Yields of GM Mustard The allegation is that countries growing GM canola have lower yields than the countries growing conventional canola.

This is grossly an inaccurate summation.

The European canola types are winter types and the North American are spring the yield potential on the winter types is much higher due to a very long 8-10 month crop, a small acreage of canola crop managed by high-tech professional farms and also the type of agriculture is very dissimilar between Canada and Europe. Similar, small well-managed farms in Canada yield more than (average

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already derived from GM soybean and GM canola.

If increasing mustard productivity by generating better quality hybrids and achieving 100 per cent seed purity is a task that can be achieved through the GM trait and cannot be achieved through the traditional CMS hybrid system, why should India not adopt it?

111.3 bushel per acre) or 6236 kg per ha, almost double than those in Europe.

Therefore, the yield comparison of GM technology has to be either over a period or in similar setting and agro-ecology like Canola yield in Canada between 1996 when GM canola technology was introduced with 2014 data. The yield trend is crystal clear and GM canola country, Canada has shown superior yield increases than Europe.

Also, all GM technologies are not the same. There are different traits approved in different countries and are different from the trait under discussion in India.

Another allegation that GM mustard hybrid DMH11 was not evaluated against the latest conventional mustard hybrids in the market. In this case, the GM hybrid DMH-11 was bred using the highyielding variety Varuna in 2000s to prove the barnase-barstar technology through the regulatory process. Field-evaluation carried out as per prescribed protocols by ICAR institutions and SAUs confirmed the higher level of heterosis, about 25-30 per cent over the parental lines, as well as over the zonal check. Therefore, the Brassica breeders throughout the country can use the GM mustard trait after it is deregulated as a ‘breeding tool’ to breed at least 25-30 per cent superior and highyielding hybrids than those that exist.

The safety aspects of herbicide Glufosinate are well-studied and globally accepted Herbicide Glufosinate is one of most used herbicides in the world for more than three decades and currently approved for use in tea gardens in India. India uses approximately 100 metric tonnes of it each year to control weeds in orchard and tea gardens. The GM mustard trait

will require Glufosinate application in research farms and for seed production plots only.

Glufosinate can’t be sprayed by farmers on mustard as it is not recommended by GEAC and the Central Insecticide Board and Registration Committee (CIBRC) of the Indian government. Therefore, apprehension of its use by farmers in GM mustard is a fallacy.

Many countries have grown GM canola (Canadian mustard) and GM Crops for last two decades As many as 28 agriculturally-rich countries grow GM crops including Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, India and the US. Those countries in Europe and Japan that do not grow GM crops are the major importers and consumers of GM food, feed and fibre. Twenty years of cultivation and consumption of GM food and feed is the best testimonials of its safety for human health and environmental sustainability. In the recent years, many African countries have engaged in field-evaluation of different crops including maize, cotton, cowpea and banana to meet the growing demand for food, feed and fibre.

Every country has its own need and interest to accept or reject GM crops.

In the case of GM mustard, it meets the need and interest of our farmers and consumers as our mustard yields are very low and we depend heavily on imported edible oil, most of which is

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

This is in the interest of our farmers, the interest of our consumer and on the top, it is our national interest as imported edible oil cost Rs75, 000 crore every year to our exchequer. And just to put this on record, over 200 Indian scientists have been involved in the review of safety, efficacy and performance of GM mustard, that included biosafety studies and obtaining around 800 public comments before GEAC recommended its commercial approval to the government.

Technicalities behind GM food Different GM organisms include different genes inserted in different ways. Hence, individual GM foods and their safety should be assessed on a case-by-case basis. It is not possible to make general statements on the safety of all GM foods.

GM foods currently available on the international market have passed safety assessments and are not likely to present risks for human health. No effects on human health have been shown as a result of the consumption of such foods by the general population in the countries where they have been approved.

The transgenes would not get transferred to humans or animals through consumption of GM mustard. So far, there is no evidence suggesting that the transgenes could be transferred to humans or animals through consumption of GM food.

GM MUSTARD SAGA

The regulatory agencies assessed thoroughly the dossier of GM mustard and evaluated critically the safety data on toxicity and allergenicity in humans and animals and found that the introduced proteins do not have any toxicity.

The seeds of GM mustard are as safe for consumption as other conventionally grown mustard varieties in India.GM mustard leaves are safe for consumption as other conventionally grown mustard varieties in India.

Medicinal products containing mustard oil or leaf from this hybrid have been assessed to be as safe as other conventional mustard varieties. The introduced Barnase and Barstar proteins of the GM mustard are expressed in specific tissue (anther) and are not found in other parts of the plant. Bar protein expressed in leaves, but is rapidly degraded during cooking.

Also, the expressed proteins show rapid digestion in the human gut in the in vitro tests. Moreover, there has been more than a decade of history of safe use of these three proteins.

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The compositional analysis of GM mustard shows that all the biochemical/ nutritional components of GM mustard are similar to that of conventionally grown mustard varieties Therefore GM mustard is not expected to have a change in the taste or pungency. It would be as nutritious as the conventional mustard.

Bt brinjal and GM mustard) and expressed their dissatisfaction with the data generated. But the same activists have no problems supporting bio-technology in the healthcare sector. Incidentally it’s important to note that the same GEAC takes decisions related to the healthcare sector.

Oil from GM mustard contains no new proteins. Therefore, the GM mustard oil is as safe as the conventional mustard oil from the non-GM mustard variety.

Although oil derived from GM mustard is as safe as the oil from conventional varieties, people allergic to traditional mustard oil should exercise similar caution to GM mustard.

We should use each technology, including GM, where it gives us maximum value or where others can’t do the job.

End Above assessments make it clear that detractors of GM mustard technology are opposed to genetic modification technologies for agriculture per se and do not care which source it comes from or the importance of crop for the farmer or the country. They have attacked the regulator in all the three cases (BT cotton,

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The Foreign Direct Investment The resilient economic growth driver of Indian food processing industry The foreign direct investment (FDI) is a major source of non-debt financial resource for economic development of India, apart from being a critical driver of economic growth. Foreign companies invest in India to take advantage of relatively lower wages, special investment privileges such as tax exemptions, etc.

For a country where foreign investments are being made, it also means achieving technical know-how and generating employment.

The Indian government’s favourable policy regime and robust business environment have ensured that foreign capital keeps flowing into the country.

The government has taken many initiatives in recent years such as relaxing FDI norms across sectors such as food processing industry, defence, PSU oil refineries, telecom, power exchanges, and

stock exchanges, among others.

According to Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the total FDI investments India received during April-June 2017 stood at US$ 14.55 billion, indicating that government's effort to improve ease of doing business and relaxation in FDI norms is yielding results.

Data for April-June 2017 indicates that the services sector attracted the highest FDI equity inflow of US$ 1.88 billion, followed by computer software and hardware – US$ 1.32 billion and trading – US$ 769 million.

Most recently, the total FDI equity inflows for the month of June 2017 touched US$ 3.12 billion.

Data for April-June 2017 indicates that the services sector attracted the highest FDI equity inflow of US$ 1.88 billion, followed by computer software and

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

hardware – US$ 1.32 billion and trading – US$ 769 million. Most recently, the total FDI equity inflows for the month of June 2017 touched US$ 3.12 billion.

During April-June 2017, India received the maximum FDI equity inflows from Mauritius (US$ 3.29 billion), followed by Singapore (US$ 3.01 billion), Germany (US$ 798 million), USA (US$ 660 million), and Netherlands (US$ 584 million).

The food processing ministry has been working vigorously to bring in international food and FMCG companies from all over the world to invest in Indian food industry and make it of international level and the world food hub.

Investments in Indian food processing sector The Indian government has received

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commitments from 13 global and domestic companies to invest a cumulative Rs 68,000 crore in food processing over the next few years.

The ministry of food processing industries signed in-principle agreements with the 13 companies at the World Food India 2017 event in New Delhi.

But in total, $11.25 billion investments were committed in the country’s food processing sector during the World Food India event, and with government funds put together, the total investments signed reached $18.84 billion.

PepsiCo Inc. committed an investment of Rs13, 340 crore for setting up beverage and food manufacturing units over the next five years. Rival Coca-Cola Co. said it will invest Rs11, 000 crore in supply chain as part of its plan to increase use of

Indian fruits in its beverages.

ITC Ltd, the Kolkata-based maker of cigarettes and packaged consumer goods, said it will invest Rs10, 000 crore in food processing over the next five to seven years. Yoga guru-turned businessman Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Ltd has challenged established packaged goods companies in the past couple of years, also signed a memorandum of understanding that proposed investment of Rs10,000 crore to set up food processing units across the country.

“Food processing is a priority sector under the Make in India programme,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi Steps such as allowing 100 per cent foreign direct investment in food retail, a single-window facilitation cell for foreign investors and attractive incentives from central and state governments have made India a preferred investment destination.

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Also increasing urbanization and a growing middle class are resulting in an ever-growing demand for wholesome, processed food.

Farmers are central to India’s efforts in food processing and the national level programme launched by the govt. - the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana, is a step to create world-class food processing infrastructure. It is expected to leverage investment of $5 billion, benefit two million farmers and generate more than half a million jobs over the next three years.

Most of the investments proposed by the companies named above are not new.

Most of these companies, including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, ITC, Patanjali, Amazon and Metro Cash and Carry, had earlier announced their investment plans in India until 2020 and the investment

34 figures proposed are part of those previously declared plans.

Other proposals include Rs5,000 crore of investments by Saraf Group in farm produce and processing, Rs4,000 crore

by Yes Bank Ltd for financing food processing projects across the backend infrastructure and Rs3,450 by USbased online retailer Amazon.com Inc. will invest in food retail, according to a statement by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries.

Hyderabad-based Janani Food Pvt. Ltd (Rs2, 000 crore), German retailer Metro Cash and Carry (Rs1, 690 crore), Cargill Inc. (Rs1, 500 crore), biscuit maker Britannia Industries Ltd (Rs1, 500 crore) and US-based chocolate maker The Hershey Co. are among the other prominent investors.

Metro is convinced of India’s potential and strongly committed to expansion.

The company is preparing innovative solutions on various levels from supporting farmers as key factors in supply chain to empowering the competitiveness of traditional kirana stores while retail monetization for sizing these opportunities and playing its role in the transformation of India’s food market.

“Our goal is to transform India’s food economy and double farmer incomes,” said Food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal Food processing minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the $600 billion retail sector is set to treble by 2020. The government is helping set up 42 mega food parks where common facilities can be used by companies instead of setting up individual plants.

INVESTMENT SURGE

the company has been able to organically grow eight brands each of which generate Rs. 1000 crores or more in estimated annual retail sales and are household names, trusted across the country.

Now PepsiCo Inc. committed an investment of Rs13, 340 crore for setting up beverage and food manufacturing units over the next five years.

The company has established a model of partnership with farmers and now works with over 24,000 happy farmers across nine states. More than 45 per cent of these are small and marginal farmers with a land holding of one acre or less.

PepsiCo provides 360-degree support to the farmer through assured buy back of their produce at pre-agreed prices, quality seeds, extension services, disease control packages, bank loans, weather insurance, and the latest technological practices.

The association with PepsiCo India has not only raised the incomes of small and marginal farmers, but also their social standing.

It is also focused on reducing its carbon footprint. In 2015, PepsiCo’s India’s Food and Beverage plants had a 78 per cent and 41 per cent share from renewable energy sources, respectively such as bio mass and rice husk boilers and wind turbines. Initiatives such as reduction in use of chemicals, eco-friendly packaging initiatives and efficient waste management help reduce load on the environment.

Agro and food Processing Journal analyzed few global companies that announced to invest in the Indian sunrise sector, the food processing;

PepsiCo India provides direct and indirect employment to almost 2, 00,000 people. The company believes in providing employment and growth opportunities to local talent.

PepsiCo is a large investor in India with strong brands PepsiCo has been consistently investing in India, in the areas of product innovation, increasing manufacturing capacity, ramping up market infrastructure, strengthening supply chain and expanding company’s agriculture programme. The company has built an expansive beverage and snack food business supported by 62 plants across the country. In two decades,

Unilever investment in India Unilever, the world’s fourth-largest consumer goods company, remains upbeat on India’s growth relative to the US, its biggest region. The group has continued to invest in Hindustan Unilever (HUL) by growing business and introducing new brands, and will continue to do so. HUL contributes about 9 per cent, or 4.5 billion euros, to the Anglo-Dutch company’s overall sales, compared with 15 per cent,

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

or about 7.5 billion euros, for the US. Amanda Sourry, Global President, foods at Unilever Plc., said the company is committed to bringing its global expertise to India and are excited about India foods opportunity. Unilever has globally loved portfolio of food and refreshment brands—Kissan, Brooke Bond, Knorr, Kwality Walls, to name a few.

"Some of these brands have been present in India for over 70 years. We are committed to bringing our expertise and experience in identifying emerging needs, educating people on making informed food choices and providing the highest quality products that are sourced and distributed sustainably,” added Sourry.

Amazon invests $500 Million in Food Retail The Indian government had received investment proposals from three companies - Amazon, Grofers and Big Basket worth $695 million for retail of food products. While US-based retail giant Amazon is one of the major e-commerce players in India, Grofers and Big Basket are into online grocery space.

Amazon is investing around $500 million in retail of food products. The government last year allowed 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) through approval route for trading, including through e-commerce, in respect of food products manufactured and produced in India.

CEO of Amazon's worldwide consumer business Jeffrey Wilke said the company would continue investing ‘aggressively’ in India and showed confidence in growth of Indian market in terms of e-commerce.

Amazon started operations in India four years ago, in 2014. Amazon’s growth in India was 124 per cent in 2016 while it still maintained an upward trend in the first half of this fiscal with growth above 80 per cent.

Wilke was positive about the consumer

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36 potential of the large Indian population.

The ‘Prime’ part of Amazon is also doing well in the country. Getting to 160 million unique products in four years is astounding and the company is really impressed with the customer experience the team has built.

Jeff Wilke said that the company is not bothered by the massive losses faced by Amazon's international business because of its investments in India.

When the Seattle-based global ecommerce major started operating in India, ecommerce was limited and focused on urban areas covering handful of product categories, the tempered business executive pointed out.

Amazon changes that scene by making ecommerce more accessible to Indian citizens across the country and with more product categories.

Amazon India’s product shipping reached to 99.7 per cent of the pin codes of the country during Diwali and company’s growth in India was faster than that in US and the peak sale in Diwali was higher than what they rope in during Christmas in the US. Cargill to invest $240M in India Cargill has announced it will invest $240 million in India over the next five years. The Minnesota-based food and agriculture company’s new investments will add to the food safety and economic development of the country and benefit the food processing and agriculture industries.

The announcement was made at the recent World Food India Conference by Peter Van Deursen, Chief Executive Officer, Cargill Asia Pacific at a signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with India Ministry of Food Processing Industries. The added investment will be in Cargill’s core businesses, including edible oil, cocoa and chocolates, starches and sweeteners and animal nutrition. In addition, it will provide employment to 1,300 people and help farmers in the country.

INVESTMENT SURGE

With the growing population and changing consumer trends, Cargill is committed to nourish the people of India in a safe, sustainable and responsible manner. The Ministry for Food Processing Industries is to be complimented for organizing an event the scale of World Food India to collaborate with partners in the public and private sectors to deliver to customers what consumers want.

dimension to a healthy-indulgence dimension which is becoming a part of consumers’ choice. Products addressing issues related to diabetes, cardiovascular health, micronutrient deficiencies, fortifications—these would be another big platform for the company. Meanwhile, consumers in general are becoming health conscious, more so in urban areas where Nestle India intends to focus.

Last year, Cargill invested $100 million in its first wet corn milling plant in India and even inaugurated a new dairy feed mill in Bathinda, Punjab. Cargill opened its largest business services center in Bengaluru in 2015, employing around 2,000 people.

Nestle has also set up Nestle Food Safety Institute (NFSI) in India to offer specialised training to food inspectors, undertake research and also to provide postgraduate degrees in future. This is the second such institute globally, after the one in China.

Next From Nestle India Nestle India had never seen such a big crisis before and the impact the Maggi issue had on the minds of people involved or associated with it was immense. Looking back, it has given the company the opportunity to be more fast, focused and flexible; the innovation and renovation pipeline has been strengthened and that is evident.

In recent years, Nestle has strengthened its nutrition, health and wellness business with a number of acquisitions. Nestle management has indicated an increasing focus in these segments for Indian market too. Its global rivals like Danone and home-grown competitors like Himalaya and Patanjali have been strengthening their portfolios in the same areas as well.

One of Nestle’s big bets is health. There are around 70 million diabetics in the country, about 60 per cent of Indians are anaemic and a high percentage of children die of malnutrition, according to different studies.

India is moving from a health and pleasure

“India is an important market for us and this increased investment demonstrates our commitment to the country and the development of its agriculture and food processing industry,” said Van Deursen”.

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

Built at a cost of Rs 250 crore at Manesar in Haryana includes Rs 7 crore on latest testing equipment, NFSI is also the global research and development centre for Noodles across the world. Nestle India Ltd. will soon unveil another product for Indians with a sweet tooth as the global food giant continues to strengthen its portfolio. It will be only the second product the maker of Kit Kat chocolate will unveil specifically for India, after the 1999 launch of the Munch.

The company recently relaunched its white chocolate brand Milkybar, first introduced in 1992, with lower sugar and higher milk content. Nestle India stepped up its new launches after the 2015 controversy over monosodium glutamate content in Maggi noodles, which contributes a third of its revenues. The company has launched 43 new products since 2016. Their contribution to sales increased to 2.8 per cent in the first half of 2017 compared to 0.7 per cent a year ago.

Chocolate and confectioneries contributed 13 per cent to its sales in the first six months of the year, clocking a 10.9 per

37

INVESTMENT SURGE

38 cent growth over the year-ago period.

The relaunch of the white bar is part of the strategy to strengthen its chocolate portfolio and the company can use any one of its brands – Kit Kat, Munch and Milkybar to come up with value-added offerings.

The company is unveiling new products in each category, and recently launched a Maggi Atta Noodles variant as a breakfast meal. The level of innovation that you might have noticed in the company has sharply increased. Innovation comes together with investment and a risk.

Nestle India is consolidating its product portfolio to focus on performing brands.

The process will include launch of new products in chocolate, confectionery, coffee, and milk categories. The products launched by Nestle in the past 15-18 months would also be reviewed.

Metro Cash & Carry invest Rs 1,690 cr to add 26 stores by 2020 Metro Cash & Carry India, the Indian arm of the German multinational wholesale company, which opened its first store in Ahmedabad recently, aims to open another 26 stores across the country by 2020 for an estimated investment of about Rs 1,690 crore.

Arvind Mediratta, chief executive officer (CEO) and managing director (MD) of Metro Cash & Carry India did not divulge the exact investment figures on the upcoming stores but roughly mentioned it to be around Rs 60-65 crore per store.

The company at present operates 24 stores across the country, including its 55,000-square-foot Ahmedabad store that will help in creating over 350 jobs.

Metro Cash & Carry is upbeat on the Gujarat market and has other projects in the pipeline for the state. It already has a store in Surat. The company has so far invested Rs 2,300 crore in India and is one of the largest organised wholesalers.

The company caters to over 1.1 million customers across the country, of which around 50 per cent are kiranas, apart from hotels, restaurants and caterers (HoReCa). Mediratta feels that the Indian market would slowly move towards the HoReCa segment in the coming years. At present, it comprises only 15 per cent of the wholesale business in India, while in Europe it is 70 per cent of the business.

The Ahmedabad store sources at least 20 per cent of its assortment from regional suppliers. Fresh produce for the store, such as fruits and vegetables, will be sourced from the farm centre at Prantij Village and the local mandi in the city.

Across India, Metro works with 2,500 farmers and has over 5,000 suppliers for over 7,000 product categories. Metro is handholding kirana owners to modernise their operations, automate inventory management, billing, ordering etc. as it thinks that the kirana store model is the one to stay and succeed in a country like India. At present, around 96 per cent of the grocery business is unorganised.

India can become 3rd largest market for Coca-Cola India has the potential to become the third-largest market for Coca-Cola Co. according to Chief Executive Officer, James Quincey and the most immediate challenge as for now is to make it No. 5 in the foreseeable future. India became the sixth-largest market by volume for the maker of Coca-Cola and Sprite in 2015 after overtaking Germany.

“In the end, my vision for India is that it will be one of the top three markets in the Coke system,” said Quincey.

In 2012, Coca-Cola had announced plans to invest $5 billion in India by 2020 and these investments are on track.

The US, Mexico, China, Brazil and Japan are the top five markets for the company in terms of volume, contributing 50 per cent of worldwide unit case volume, as per company’s annual report for 2016.

The US contributed 19 per cent of overall volume while the remaining four regions contributed 31 per cent, said the same report. Individual breakup of volume contribution to the parent is not publicly disclosed.

The company is optimistic about India’s potential even as the company had a rough few quarters at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. The implementation of goods and services tax (GST) and demonetization hit sales in the country in the first half of the calendar year, according to a statement on its website. In 2016, India operations registered a mere 4 per cent volume growth, according to its annual report.

The optimism is based on the fact that

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

the company’s India business has already started to grow after demonetization.

Also on the cards is adapting to changing consumer demands. In the past 15 years, the contribution of carbonated drinks has reduced from 90 to 70 per cent of CocaCola’s overall revenue.

By 2025-2030 the contribution from carbonated drinks could further come down to 50 per cent as it looks to participate in more categories.

While brand Coca-Cola will be the heart and soul of the company, it needs to become bigger than the world’s best brand, Coca-Cola.

A decade ago in India, the company only had Maaza as a brand outside its carbonated soft drinks portfolio. Now it is increasing focus on non-carbonated beverages such as Vio (milk-based) and Zico (packaged coconut water) and currently are the largest juice and water player in India.

‘To be sure, both the carbonated and non-carbonated soft drinks categories have been growing for the company.

However, the non-carbonated drinks portfolio is growing at a faster rate.”

The Atlanta-based company looks to reformulate its sugary drinks amid growing demand from consumers and government to have a healthier portfolio as most countries face issues with obesity.

Coca-Cola has been working around the world with three levers, whether it is “smaller packages or reformulation of some of our products or innovation in new products with lower levels of sugar”, adding that even in India, the firm is looking at these three levers to reduce sugar content. An announcement can be expected shortly from the India team on this front.

All in all after World Food India, the Coca-Cola Co. said it will invest Rs11, 000 crore in the supply chain as part of its plan to increase use of Indian fruits in its beverages.

Hershey to invest $50 mn in India The Hershey Company, the U.S.based global confectionery major has announced plans to invest $50 million to grow its business in India and will focus on growth and expanding its presence in India.

INVESTMENT SURGE

Asian Development Bank (ADB), stated that the ADB will increase its investment to up to US$ 5 billion for development along the East Coast Economic Corridor (ECEC) over the next five years.

Praveen Jakate, Chairman and Managing Director, Hershey India, present at World Food India said that India is one of our key focus markets and we are investing to build this important business.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) has exempted employee stock options (ESOPs), foreign direct investment (FDI) and court-approved transactions from the long term capital gains (LTCG) tax, under the Finance Act 2017.

It views India as a potential market as Indian now are moving over luxury chocolates and premium chocolates over many Indian sweets. If things go as planned the chocolate giant will invest further.

The Union Cabinet has approved raising of bonds worth Rs 2,360 crore (US$ 365.63 million) by the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA), which will be used in various renewable energy projects in FY 2017-18.

There is an umpteen list of how many international investors have entered the indian food industry, Kellogg’s has captured the breakfast section, while Danone is make its presence felt in the dairy segment and many more, but I ended up analyzing the top companies as they provide a better insight of investments.

The Government of India is likely to allow 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in cash and ATM management companies, since they are not required to comply with the Private Securities Agencies Regulations Act (PSARA).

Contributions by Government The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) approved nine Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) worth Rs 5,000 crore (US$ 779.83 million), that includes Amazon India's Rs 3,500 crore (US$ 545.88 million) proposed investment.

India and Japan have joined hands for infrastructure development in India's north-eastern states and are also setting up an India-Japan Coordination Forum for Development of North East to undertake strategic infrastructure projects in the northeast.

The Government of India is in talks with stakeholders to further ease foreign direct investment (FDI) in defence under the automatic route to 51 per cent from the current 49 per cent, in order to give a boost to the Make in India initiative and to generate employment.

In a meeting with Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry, Government of India, Mr Takehiko Nakao, President,

The Government of India scrapped the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) will enable the foreign investment proposals requiring government approval to be cleared by the ministries concerned, and thereby improve the ease of doing business in the country.

Conclusion The government has undertaken a range of transformational initiatives and after World Food India it has become the most sorted out destination for investment in food sector.

It is a priority area in our Make in India programme.

100 per cent FDI is now permitted, for trading, including via e-commerce, of food products manufactured in India. A single-window facilitation cell provides handholding for foreign investors.

There are attractive fiscal incentives from the Union

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

39 and state governments. Loans to food and agro-based processing units, and cold chains, are classified under priority sector lending, making them easier and cheaper to obtain.”

The unique portal — ‘Nivesh Bandhu’ or investor’s friend brings together information on Central and state government policies, and incentives provided for the food processing sector.

It maps resources up to the local level, with processing requirements. It is also a platform for business networking, for farmers, processors, traders, and logistics operators.

The combination of traditional Indian food, with modern technology, processing and packaging, can help the world rediscover the health benefits, and refreshing taste of Indian food ingredients.

India has become the most attractive emerging market for global partners (GP) investment for the coming 12 months, as per a recent market attractiveness survey conducted by Emerging Market Private Equity Association (EMPEA).

The World Bank has stated that private investments in India is expected to grow by 8.8 per cent in FY 2018-19 to overtake private consumption growth of 7.4 per cent, and thereby drive the growth in India's gross domestic product (GDP) in FY 2018-19.

VANILLA VIEW

40

The natural flavor called vanilla

The vanilla harvest, its market fate and ice cream Vanilla’s continuing success is likely down to its staple, inoffensive nature, and its ability to complement other dishes, rather than dominate with a significant, innovative flavour.

Vanilla has long been the best-selling ice cream flavour not only because it is creamy and delicious, but also because of its ability to enhance so many other desserts and treats.

But why is the vanilla ice cream market going down and expensive; the answer lies within, the best natural Vanilla comes from Madagascar, east coast of Africa. The creamy and lustrous texture and flavor come only from the vanilla pod coming from the zone.

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

S

crutiny Vanilla is frequently used to flavor ice cream. Vanilla ice cream, like other flavors of ice cream was originally created by cooling a mixture made of cream, sugar, and vanilla above a container of ice and salt. The type of vanilla used to flavor ice cream varies by location. In North America, consumers are interested in a more prominent, smoky flavor, while in France, they want a more anise-like flavor. To create the smooth consistency of ice cream, the mixture

VANILLA VIEW

41 nuts and drizzled with honey; and Indianinspired flavours such as masala chai and pineapple.

has to be stirred occasionally and then returned to the container of ice and salt to continue the solidification process. In today’s time many people often consider vanilla to be the ‘default’ or ‘plain’ flavor of ice cream.

But with so many other innovative flavors in the market, Vanilla seems to have become plain, conventional, unimaginative, for many! So spare a thought for vanilla ice-cream, under threat from kinky new flavours, and out of favour with consumers endlessly in thrall to ‘what’s new’. Why have plain, conventional Vanilla ice cream when one can have exotic and innovative flavors.

According to market research, ice-

cream sales in the EU and US are static; it’s in Asia that business is booming, so it is understandable that the flavours mentioned above are popular there.

Global ice cream brands have spread their reach to almost every corner of the planet.

But for many years, flavours from the big international brands remained stubbornly conservative, dominated by chocolate, strawberry and vanilla. Now though, thanks to migration, long-haul travel, and the internet, consumers are becoming more adventurous and manufacturers are taking note.

Parlours have sprung up across offering Persian-style saffron, orange blossom, and rosewater ice cream, sprinkled with

And as more ice cream flavours are launched, the traditional vanilla is coming under threat. In addition, the price of Madagascan vanilla pods is set to increase in the wake of a cyclone earlier this year.

With these developments, is vanilla set to lose out on ice cream’s $35bn growth worldwide over the next five years?

The main flavours offered by international brands have traditionally been vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. However, as globalization took ice cream to every corner of the world, localised flavours is expanding outwards with migration, tourism, and the global reach of the internet.

The appeal of these new flavours, such as masala chai and kulfi from India; rosewater, orange blossom, and saffron from the Middle East; or red bean, sesame, and taro from China is set to spread as consumers embrace more innovative and far-flung taste experiences. The desire for novel products and new experiences motivated the consumption of around 25

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Agro & Food Processing November 2017

VANILLA VIEW

42

years for a new plantation to produce its first market-ready crop.

Yet, Madagascar’s vanilla production faces threats from within the island and far beyond its control. In March this year, Tropical Storm Enawo wreaked havoc in Madagascar, killing at least 78 people, displacing about 5,300 people and affecting nearly half a million people.

The cyclone also damaged about 30 per cent of island’s vanilla crop, which has already been affected by drought and desperate farming practices.

per cent of ice cream worldwide in 2016, showing how the market is increasingly driven by people wanting to try something different, new, and interesting.

most daring and creative flavours, can be listed as Lemon Poppy seed Muffin, Black Sesame, and a bourbon / caffeine concoction called Exhausted Parent.

Consumers also seek out authenticity when experimenting with new flavours, so it is likely that more brands will test out products that will appeal to more globalized palates, with different proportions of umami, sweet, sour, and bitter tastes. Examples could include chocolate miso, match tea, toasted coconut, lychee, cardamom, nutmeg, ginseng, or citrus flavours that are far more reliant upon East-Asian citrus fruit yuzu, which has already made inroads into the UK’s premium ice cream brands.

Unilever's executive vice-president of global ice cream Matt Close said he was absolutely convinced kulfi would work in the UK and would spread easily to the non-Indian population, who has a wide acceptance of Indian food already.

Undoubted vanilla is now cultivated all over the world, In India it is grown in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, North eastern states and Nicobar Islands.

Other examples of new experimental ice cream trends include rolled ice cream from Thailand, which involves pouring ice cream mixture onto a freezing metal plate and then rolling the frozen mixture like a piece of paper.

Do these new flavours seriously threaten vanilla’s status? Not according to the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA). According to an IDFA survey, the global top five flavours are vanilla, chocolate, cookies and cream, mint chocolate chip, and chocolate chip cookie dough. When asked about ingredients added to ice cream, the majority of those surveyed said that pecans are the most popular nut or nut flavouring, while strawberries are the most popular fruit added to their frozen treats. And the

But authentic vanilla Ice cream manufacturers definitely swear on Madagascar Vanilla pod.

The other side of the vanilla story But there is another side of this story, some expert believe that vanilla s not losing its customer rather the world is running low on Vanilla due to climate changes and theft.

A combination of climate change, crime and market speculation has driven the price of vanilla to record highs, simultaneously damaging the quality of natural pods. Ahead of harvest season in the southern hemisphere, and summer in the northern hemisphere, the almost default ice cream flavor choice may not be as ubiquitous as usual.

Vanilla is found in everything from ice cream to bourbon, but most of the world’s vanilla comes from one place, the island nation of Madagascar. This year, the island, located off the east coast of Africa, will produce 80% of the world’s vanilla.

As cultivating vanilla has grown more lucrative, India, Papua New Guinea and Uganda have planted more vanilla vines, with Indonesia the second largest vanilla producer. Madagascar’s dominance isn’t under threat yet—it could take five

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

The uncertainly over this year’s harvest, set to start in June, has sent vanilla prices soaring. Vanilla prices have nearly doubled in the last year, and quadrupled in the last four years. In 2014, a kilogram of vanilla sold for about $60 a kilogram (just over 35 ounces). This year, the cured beans, the familiar darkened pod, are projected to sell at $400 to $450 per kilogram, a sharp increase from $225 to $240 per kilogram in 2016.

Vanilla exports should have helped make island life better and alleviate a poverty rate of more than 77 per cent . Instead it has created a climate of fear and exploitation.

The price increase has also attracted crime, with armed robbers ripping vines out of the ground. Farmers forced to sleep in their fields to guard their produce make only a fraction of the spice’s export price, according to the watchdog.

Desperation has driven farmers to pick immature green pods, which sell for about $80 a kilogram. Rather than 48 hours in a sweatbox and 90 minutes a day of sun-curing for two weeks and then aging in a wooden box for six months, the faster process relies on vacuum packing, which reduces the quality and yield of the sought-after mature beans.

The Madagascan government has gone as far as a public bonfire of the premature pods. They have also created a “vanilla platform” to regulate growers, exporters and the state to ensure a better product.

Still industry leaders are doubtful that consumers won’t simply succumb to synthetic vanilla flavors.

Vanilla shortage could leave a bad taste in the mouth this summer, as food manufacturer’s grapple with rocketing vanilla prices that threaten to push up the cost of ice-cream.

VANILLA VIEW

ice cream manufacturer but they haven’t changed supplier. If you are doing battle with giants like Unilever you need a product that’s unbelievable. We will sell more.”

The price of Madagascan vanilla surged by nearly 150 per cent last year after the island, the dominant producer, experienced a poor harvest. Now food industry executives are reporting a fresh rise in prices as supply tightens.

Vanilla is the second most expensive spice in the world, after saffron, a result of its long and labour-intensive cultivation.

Taste test: high street ice cream Part of the orchid family, vanilla beans is hand-pollinated on family farms. Each flower opens for only one part of one day during the season – if it is not pollinated on that day, no pod is produced. Once picked, the curing process, which involves drying the beans in the sun by day and allowing them to sweat in a box at night, takes three to six months.

The market price of vanilla has risen over the past 12 months and this has been driven largely by a poor quality harvest in Madagascar.

The main producers of food grade vanilla – known as black vanilla because of the colour of the dried pods – are Madagascar, followed by Mexico and Tahiti. As with wine, chocolate and coffee, the vanilla from each country has its own distinctive characteristics but it is Madagascan vanilla that produces the creamy, sweet flavour beloved of vanilla Ice cream lovers Soaring prices will hurt companies that use the ingredient in everything from soft drinks to cakes and perfume. But the pain will be felt most acutely by icecream makers, as it is the most expensive ingredient in the production process and some will be forced to pass on the increased cost to consumers.

Vanilla extract can be found all over world but Madagascar vanilla has greatest depth of flavour. Managing price increase is a bit of a challenge

the the the for

When prices are high, market experts say, farmers are tempted to pick beans early. That leads to a less intense flavour, compounding problems in the market. The high-value crop is also a high value crop for criminals.

Creators defend vanilla flavour made using synthetic biology There are reports that vanilla farmers in Madagascar harvested their crop prematurely, in fear of losing their production to thieves and this coupled with inadequate drying in order to increase profits from their crop has led to lower quality vanilla.

A decent vanilla bean crop in Madagascar is judged to be about 2,000 tonnes, whereas in prematurely harvested pod was between 1,300 and 1,400 tonnes.

The combination of high prices and poor quality means some manufacturers are turning to synthetic alternatives. But many food brands are not open to using artificial flavourings.

43 the reasons for the upward trend in prices.

However, the majority of the farmers here could not take advantage of the situation as they neglected the crop following an earlier price fall. Thus, production dwindled to below five tonnes compared to around 1,000 tonnes in 2008-09.

The price increase is also due to volatility, labour shortage and the threat of Fusarium wilts a common fungal disease as the reasons to abstain from vanilla cultivation, for fear of a crop loss.

Vanilla has a 3-year gestation period. And all these reasons have turned the farmers away from cultivating vanilla.

Vanilla is a labour intensive crop and there is a requirement of manual or hand pollination for each flower.

Vanilla is predominantly an export crop and its domestic usage is very minimal.

The industry in India mainly uses synthetic vanilla and not the natural kind.

That too is for applications in the food industry, cosmetics etc. According to A Jayathilak, Chairman, Spices Board, production was very meager due to a lack of interest from farmers in maintaining vanilla gardens, especially in the wake of disease and the price fall since late 2000s.

The lower prices also hindered the area of expansion. Currently, production is limited to isolated pockets in Karnataka and Kerala.

Vanilla is every ice-cream company’s biggest-selling product.

SUNFIC You can bring out a niche We are dealing in all Types of dryfruits flavour but vanilla will still & Spices giftbox wholesaler be top. You’ve just got to take the hit on it because customers would notice the difference.”

Indian Vanilla Market High prices of vanilla seem to have opened up opportunities for farmers in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, as the prices for good quality processed beans touched a whopping $600/kg.

Low yield in Madagascar, which produces 80 per cent of the world’s vanilla, due to a cyclone, and declining cultivation in India and Indonesia are stated to be

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

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FORTIFIED FOOD

44

Fortified food – The missing gap in Indian food industry

T

oday people are constantly noticing about ‘food fortification’ everywhere through TV, print or electronic media. The consumers in India do not have a clear understanding about this topic. Hence the fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) giants are trying to influence minds of Indian consumers with advertisements of foods enriched

with vitamins, calcium, iron, and iodine that greatly emphasizes ‘fortified food’ is better for health. But what exactly is food fortification?

Food fortification is the process of adding micronutrients (essential vitamins) to food. It depends on purely commercial choice to provide extra nutrients in a food, whereas it is a public health policy which

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

aims to reduce the number of people with dietary deficiencies within a population.

Some regions staple foods can lack particular nutrients because of regional differences or from natural inadequacy of a normal diet. Adding micronutrients to staples can prevent large-scale deficiency diseases.

Fortification defined by World Health

FORTIFIED FOOD

Organization (WHO) and Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), states that “the practice of deliberately increasing the content of an essential micronutrient, i.e. vitamins and minerals (including trace elements) in a food irrespective of whether the nutrients were originally in the food before processing or not, so as to improve the nutritional quality of the food supply and to provide a public health benefit with minimal risk to health.”

Estimated between 3 and 5 million deaths occur every year globally due to undernutrition and nutrient deficiency.

Adults are deprived of a balanced diet with variety of food items due to certain circumstances. Consuming only limited food items results in dietary deficiencies in the long run. Majority of the rural population live on only rice/wheat and pulses. Hence several foods and beverages across the world have been fortified with the motive to provide consumers the sufficient quantity of nutrients required.

Global Nutrition Report-2016 clearly indicates that India lags behind in tackling malnutrition. The problem of malnutrition manifests in form of stunting, wasting, micronutrient deficiencies and over¬weight/obesity. In terms of stunting, India ranks 114th out of 132 nations while for wasting, it is 120th among 130 countries. Anaemia prevalence among women of reproductive ages, India ranks 170th out of 185 countries which is a matter of grave concern.

Some view fortification as an intentional marketing scheme to sell their product.

There is a lot of work that must go into a product before fortifying it. In order to fortify a product, it must first be proven that addition of this vitamin or mineral is beneficial to health, safe, and an effective method of delivery. The addition should abide all food and labeling regulations and support nutritional rationale. From a food developer's point of view, they need to consider the costs associated with this new product and whether or not there will be a market to support the change.

flour, iodized salt, calcium, vitaminenriched jams and soft drinks.

Iodine Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF, Kul Gautam said, “Iodine deficiency disorder (IDD) is the single greatest cause of preventable mental retardation. Severe deficiencies cause cretinism, stillbirth and miscarriage. But even mild deficiency can significantly affect the learning ability of populations. Today over 1 billion people in the world suffer from iodine deficiency and 38 million babies born every year are not protected from brain damage due to IDD.” A survey conducted by the UNICEF has revealed that about 93 per cent households consumed iodised salt in China, 48 per cent in Myanmar while Bangladesh and Nepal stand at 70 and 63 per cent respectively.

Of 312 districts surveyed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 254 were found for iodine deficiency. Iodine is a micronutrient and dietary mineral that is naturally present in the food supply in some regions, especially near sea coasts.

Iodine is added to salt but provides small and essential amount of iodine needed by humans. Salt is an effective medium for distributing iodine to the public because it is consumed in more predictable amounts than other commodities. Health issues associated with iodine deficiency include: mental retardation, hypothyroidism, and goiter. Iodine deficiency affects two billion people in the world and is the cause of intellectual and developmental

Some key fortified food supplements These are few essential supplements that are added into food items. In India, most people suffer from deficiencies of iron, iodine, and vitamins, etc. Through the means of food fortification, these consumers gain the required nutrients.

Fortified foods come in the form of wheat

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45 disabilities. Public health experts suggest salt iodisation is the world's most costeffective measure available to improve health.

Folic Acid Folic acid also known as folate functions in reducing blood homocysteine levels, forms red blood cells, proper growth and division of cells, and preventing neural tube defects (NTDs). Several countries have added folic acid to flour that prevents significant number of NTDs in infants. Research trials have shown the ability to reduce the incidence of NTDs by supplementing pregnant mothers with folic acid by 72 per cent. The RDA for folic acid ranges from as low as 150 μg/ day for children aged 1–3 years old, to 400 μg/day for males and females over the age of 19, and 600 μg/day during pregnancy. Diseases associated with folic acid deficiency include: megaloblastic or macrocytic anemia, cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancer and NTDs in infants.

Niacin Niacin is a very important nutrient as it reverses cholesterol transport from the arteries back to liver. Niacin can increase HDL levels from 15 to 40 per cent with most of the effect at doses of 1 to 1.5 g per day. The major mechanism appears to be by preventing the clearance of HDL's carrier protein, apolipoprotein A-1, after it returns from the arteries back to the liver.

As a result, these 'empty' carrier particles are recycled back into the circulation and freed for further reverse cholesterol transport. Diseases associated with niacin deficiency include: Signs and symptoms of Pellagra called the 3D's-dermatitis, dementia, and diarrhea. Common diseases present a high frequency of niacin deficiency: alcoholism, anorexia nervosa, HIV infection, gastrectomy, malabsorptive disorders.

Vitamin D Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin and hence it cannot be added to variety of foods. Margarine, vegetable oils and dairy products are the items that vitamin D is added to. Fortification of common foods such as milk, margarine, and breakfast cereals has proved to be beneficial for the masses.

Statistics show that approximately 80–90 per cent children display varying degrees of bone deformations due to vitamin D deficiency to being a very rare condition.

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Diseases associated with a vitamin D deficiency include rickets, osteoporosis, and certain types of cancer (breast, prostate, colon and ovaries). It has also been associated with increased risks for fractures, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, autoimmune and infectious diseases, asthma and other wheezing disorders, myocardial infarction, hypertension, congestive heart failure, and peripheral vascular disease.

Fluoride Fluoride is not considered an essential mineral but can be useful in preventing tooth decay and to maintain adequate dental health. Fortification of water supplies with fluoride with safe amounts will retain the properties of resistance to dental caries but avoid staining cause by fluorosis (a condition caused by excessive fluoride intake).

Conditions commonly associated with fluoride deficiency are dental caries and osteoporosis. Daily intakes of fluoride can vary significantly according to the various sources of exposure. Values ranging from 0.46 to 3.6–5.4 mg/day have been reported in several studies. In areas where water is fluoridated this can be expected to be a significant source of fluoride, however fluoride is also naturally present in huge range of foods in a wide range of concentrations.

When staple foods such as wheat, rice, milk, breakfast cereals etc. are fortified with vitamins and minerals, the deficiency at the grassroots level can be addressed.

This has been demonstrated by the successful prevention of iodine deficiency using iodine-fortified table salt. Besides iron-deficiency, anemia that is highly common in women can be prevented by iron-fortification of foodstuffs. In addition to iron, other micronutrients like vitamin B12, folic acid, niacin, riboflavin, zinc, help to increase productivity, cognitive development and maternal health.

What are the benefits of fortified foods? a) Nutrients are added to staple foods that are widely consumed. This is an excellent method to improve the health of a large population, all at once. b) Micronutrients added to the food that are low in quantity and well regulated as per prescribed standards as an overdose of nutrients is unlikely. c) There is no need to change in eating patterns or food habits of people. d) Fortified food does not alter

It is notable to see that food and nutrition security is being promoted through several national level programmes like Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS), Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGA), Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) and Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS). Fortification of food items especially those being distributed through PDS is being taken up to address the issue of malnutrition in the country.

characteristics of the food. e) Food fortification can be a very costeffective public health intervention.

Fortified foods must be consumed in adequate amounts by target individuals.

It is also necessary to have access and use fortificants that are well absorbed yet do not affect sensory properties of foods.

The use of food vehicles that are centrally processed which have the support of food industry is highly suggested. f) Fortified foods also lower the risk of the multiple deficiencies that result from insufficiency in food supply or a poor quality diet. Growing children need a sustained supply of micronutrients for growth and development and women of fertile age entering pregnancy and lactation with adequate nutrient stores.

Government initiatives for food fortification Indian government has given top priority to combat malnutrition among its people.

The government should provide necessary information to the producers of fortified foods. The food industry requires updated information to make business decisions in favor of continued fortification and adherence to standards defined by the government. Support in terms of technical expertise with regards to fortified food items production should be encouraged. It must also offer attractive incentives and subsidies to the food industry participating directly or indirectly in the fortification program.

The awareness and attitude of the general public towards nutrition and vitamin D sufficiency must change. The consumer’s interest, cooperation and participation will depend on the understanding related to benefits and necessity of vitamin D. This deficiency is world’s most under-diagnosed and under-treated disease.

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Supervision and assessment are critical factors in the sustainability of fortification programs. India is a country rampant with issue of food adulteration. Affordable facilities must be made available at minimal cost to all distributors, retailers and consumers to test levels of vitamin D fortification in staple foods. This step will ensure quality control of fortified foods at multiple levels and benefit the fortification program in the long run. The government’s efforts and achievements through continual updates via mass media indicate their commitment to fulfill the objective of providing fortified food.

These initiatives will benefit all the stakeholders of the fortification program—the food industry, consumers, government, administration.

Food industry should come up with cheaper fortified food products for the people in India. As part of their CSR activity, cheaper food products having nutrients must be introduced and sell it on mass scale so that even poor people can afford it. Government should give some tax exemptions on these products.

A Food Fortification Resource Centre with the support of Tata Trust at FSSAI

has been set up wherein a dedicated team is working to promote large-scale fortification of five staples. Despite government policy for fortification, the progress noticed till date is somewhat limited, except in few areas where

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excellence has been achieved largely based on initiatives taken by regional department and officers.

As per national survey data, around 70 per cent of preschool children suffer from iron deficiency, while 85 per cent of preschool children suffer from subclinical Vitamin A deficiency.

Many birth defects are caused due to unavailability of adequate nutrients from which 50-70 per cent can be prevented.

Food fortification success is apparent from the early 1920s with first cases of fortification conducted successfully in both Switzerland and USA. From then on, many countries adopted this practice.

Currently, 83 countries around the world have made fortification a part of their programs to improve the malnutrition status in the country.

Salt Iodization program was one of the first Food Fortification programs that were a tremendous hit, in terms of reducing the rate of goiter. Few state governments with aid from certain public health programs are implementing wheat fortification with iron and folic acid.

Lastly but most importantly, the government’s strategies on fortification should support and accelerate regional, national and also international initiatives to promote healthy eating habits with respect to both macro and micro-nutrients.

Food fortification is the most convenient method to help people overcome nutrient deficiencies.

FSSAI has formulated comprehensive regulations for fortified foods known as the FSS (Fortification of Foods) Regulations, 2016. The regulations include standards for fortification of wheat flour, maida, oil, milk, rice, salt and vanaspati and have been operationalised since 16th October, 2016.

on the rise. It is a dual trouble that needs to be tackled with permanent solutions so that Indians can follow a healthy lifestyle.

Food and beverages manufacturers in India have undertaken the responsibility to be part of the solution to malnutrition.

working on oil, LT Foods, DCP Food, and KKR Food shall launch rice and in salt. Companies have agreed to jointly promote consumer-facing awareness by including the national logo for fortified foods on their products.

To begin with, Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) released a set of standards and a logo last year.

Now, a number of enterprises are adding premixes of micronutrients to launch fortified foods. Smita Mankad, Head of FSSAI’s Food Fortification Resource Centre stated that in the next few months, General Mills India, ITC, Hindustan Unilever and Patanjali will launch wheat flour, Adani Wilmar, Marico, Borges India, and Kaleesuwari Refineries are

Chief Executive Officer - FSSAI, Pawan Kumar Agarwal said “Food fortification is nothing new. Everyone agrees it needs to be done and wants to do it. But it doesn’t get done. All it requires is aligning a few things for the industry to start fortifying and the consumer to start accepting. It’s like the chicken and egg story, which comes first.” The food regulator is proactively pushing for a greater embrace by states and food companies.

Particular focus has been on the products to be fortified. As per the Household Consumer Expenditure Survey 2014, people in India consume cereals around 300g/day, oil about 25g/day and salt around 8-10g/day.

Food companies involved to promote fortification in India India has to solve the serious problem of malnutrition because a large number of people are undernourished whereas the ratio of overweight and obese people is

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

FSSAI in a statement said that the companies already have begun the process of fortifying wheat flour with their products, including Aashirwaad, Pillsbury, Annapurna, Patanjali and Nature Fresh, Golden Harvest, Risshta, Energetic, Vitamin Plus, Kumar Chakki Atta and Harmony Chakki Fresh are expected to be available in different regions.

Nestle India launched Maggi Masalas of India using signature herbs and spices used in various regional cuisines of India to create Indian flavours with a delicious Maggi twist. The company also launched iron fortified Maggi noodles aimed at iron-deficient (anaemic) people in the

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country. They are even exploring ways to fortify products across their portfolios.

Some of NestlÊ’s existing fortified products include Masala-e-Magic and CEREGROW.

levels. There are several other natural substances that have an impact on human health. Probiotics are beneficial bacteria that help maintain a balance of good and bad bacteria in the stomach.

Hence these are few initiatives taken by some brands that are on a mission to eradicate malnutrition from India.

Manufacturers must improve their product profile by making nutritious products more affordable to low-income consumers so that they can gain benefit of fortified products. Milk is being fortified by many players now.

Fortified foods are recommended to individuals whose deficiency is not managed by dietary supplementation due to the insufficient absorption of minerals.

Hence FSSAI plans to introduce doubly fortified wheat flour and salt that is not to be consumed by all. These are meant only for those who suffer from deficiencies of iron and calcium.

Like say, Nestle markets fortified milk product under the brand name Nestle a+.

Mother Dairy started with Delhi but has taken this initiative to go pan-India.

Some challenges that fortified food segment faces Fortified foods have no direct association with obesity and overweight but because they are typically less filling and higher in calories than whole foods. You may feel the need to eat more throughout the day and consequently gain weight over time.

Oil fortification is the process of adding micronutrients to edible oil to increase its nutritional value. All kinds of edible oils like soybean, palmolein, groundnut, cotton seed, mustard, etc. can be fortified.

Oil has about 11 companies joined in the bandwagon with advertised brands like Fortune, Saffola, Ruchi Gold, Sweekar, and Nature Fresh. Major edible oil manufacturers are going to fortify cooking oil with Vitamin A & D. Fortification of edible oils offers the most viable and cost-effective option as there is a fairly high consumption of edible oils in India. Food fortification has a great potential to enrich the nutritional quality of various foods.

It is encouraging to see such a traction and commitment within the food industry to initiate fortification of foods. Indeed this shall help India improve the nutritional status of people, both rich and poor.

Dabur has launched Real Junior juice fortified with calcium for children below six years of age. Popular beverage brand PepsiCo has several health drinks in its portfolio including Gatorade and Tropicana juices. Gatorade is an Rs 13,944 crore brand globally while energy drink Red Bull is Rs 4,648 crore. Food supplements or fortified foods should be such that they naturally integrate with daily routines without any extra effort.

Fortified foods are essentially strengthened with natural substances or compounds known to have a specific benefit. For instance, soya is known to have a positive impact on cholesterol

Dietary supplements can have more serious health risks as the companies that make them do not disclose ingredient side effects. The most common severe effects were allergic reactions, fatigue, nausea, and heart, kidney or liver problems.

Fortified foods and supplements can present specific risks for people who are on prescribed medications that may have harmful interactions with food or supplement ingredients. The vitamins and minerals added to fortified foods can result in incidences including decreased absorption, treatment failure or even increased mortality risk.

Also the lack of knowledge about quantitative impact of interactions among nutrients which are added as a mixture on the absorption of the individual nutrients is another factor that needs to be addressed.

Researchers done by University of California, of the study on Fortification of Foods with Vitamin D in India stated that the supplementation strategy certainly has greater specificity of intervention and allows better dose adjustment. However, its disadvantages are: incurred user cost, low compliance, self-prescription and increased risk of toxicity. Therefore it is essential to set certain guidelines to prevent any mishap.

This complicates the estimation of how much of each nutrient should be added.

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Qualified people should be hired for the job who possesses the required expertise to carry out the given task.

Conclusion Measures that promote an increase in the supply, access, consumption and utilization of an adequate quantity, quality and variety of foods for all age groups should be supported by the government and industry bodies. The aim is to provide people in their diet all the required energy, macro- and micronutrients they need to enjoy a healthy and productive life. Food fortification tends to have a less immediate but a much wider and more sustained impact.

WHO estimates that deficiency of key micronutrients such as iron, vitamin A and iodine together affects a third of the world’s population. To combat the nutrition challenge India faces, processed foods with standards-based fortification can help advance overall health goals. It is vital to make iron-fortified food widely available, since iron deficiency contributes to 20 per cent of maternal deaths and is associated with nearly half of all maternal deaths.Low intake of vitamins, zinc and folate also causes a variety of health issues, particularly when growing children are deprived. Fortification is a low-cost solution. The benefit is maximised when there is a focus also on adequate intake of oils and fats, which are necessary for the absorption of micronutrients and something poorer households often miss in their diet.

Increasing dietary diversity is regarded as the most desirable and sustainable option however it takes the longest to implement.

Fortified foods are not meant for people who have a balanced diet consisting of vegetables, whole grains, legumes, green leafy vegetables, lean meat, fish and dairy products.

Effectiveness of fortification standards introduced by FSSAI will depend on its implementation. A well-functioning public distribution system is the best channel to reach precisely those sections that need fortified food the most. Recent studies indicate that adding zinc to food during the six months to 12 years growth period of children reduces risk of death from infectious diseases and all causes put together. It is also vital that food industry views affordability as a central concern, because unaffordable fortified food would defeat the very purpose of fortification.

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HRS showcases comprehensive F & B processing technology at Gulfood 2017

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RS Process Systems Ltd. (HRS PSL), part of HRS Group, UK, one of India’s leading heat transfer specialists participated in Gulfood Manufacturing Dubai 2017, one of the prominent event for the food & beverage processing industry. The expo was held at Dubai World Trade Centre 31st October to 2nd November 2017. At this event, HRS PSL exhibited their energy efficient range of heat exchangers and systems: ECOFLUX* Corrugated Tube Heat Exchanger, HRS Funke Plate Heat Exchangers, Unicus Scraped Surface Heat Exchanger and a wide range of heat exchanger based systems applied for range of processes throughout the industry sectors.

HRS showcased advanced systems like the HRS Monobloc Aseptic Steriliser cum Filler, single and multiple effect Evaporation systems for the fruit pulp and juice processing industry. These systems have enabled processing in a way that has almost doubled the shelf life at the same time retention of nutritive value

of end product. Our innovative systems such as Unicus Scraped Surface Heat Exchanger and HRS ParaDice* with Hygienic Piston Pump ensure processing of viscous and particulate foods, readyto-eat foods without damage to the foods.

These systems are integrated to process single or multi-fruit processing lines and are installed at some of the esteemed companies in India and international geographies. Recently, some of the Mega Food Parks, under the ‘Make In India’ initiative of the Government of India have entrusted HRS for their fruit/ food processing technology requirements.

Speaking on the company's first time

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participation in Gulfood Manufacturing Dubai 2017, V Gokuldas, MD, HRS Process Systems Ltd. said: “HRS is one of the leading technology providers to the food sector with focus on fruit, beverage, milk and allied segments. Our heat transfer solutions have enabled efficient thermal processing including aseptic processing, in fruit pulp, beverage, dairy and special sectors such as ready-to-eat, nutraceuticals. Gulfood Manufacturing Dubai 2017 has provided us with a good platform to connect with companies in West Asia and Africa. Our application engineering and solutions have been well appreciated by Customers. We are committed to our Customers for quality product, performance satisfaction and efficient service.” This edition of Gulfood Manufacturing Dubai saw companies from African continent, Dubai Sharjah in UAE, India, Pakistan, Europe and many more attending the event. Many leading multinational companies have shown keen interest in HRS' processing lines.

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5200 kg of chilled ready meals in 90 minutes / cycle!

•Automatic calculation of the cooling time between 63 and 10°C •Registration of special programs dedicated to APC products.

ACFRI blast chilling and deep freezing mixed cells have the appropriate characteristics to meet the requirements and constraints of industrial companies:

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o obtain this performance, ACFRI is the specialist in blast chilling and deep freezing was selected by the Armor Plats cuisines company, for its production of fresh ready meals.

Working in industrial catering, Armor Plats Cuisinés (APC) is positioned as a home cook who respects the flavor of traditional recipes. APC is equally uncompromising when selecting the best products or to guarantee the constant quality of its ready –made dishes. APC has specifically chosen the virtue of cooking under vacuum, a method that eliminates all health risks.

reliability compatible with this high quality policy. ACFRI’s TCI tunnels offer provides an industrial solution fully adapted to APC’s requirement. Not less than 4 TUNNELS TCI 600 Double Box that have been installed in APC’s kitchens.

Their performance was guaranteed

by ACFRI and validated through real condition tests at full charge, with two carriages 360 trays of 1.8 kg each, or 1300 kg / tunnel cooled to + 90 ° C to 10 ° C in 84 minutes without superficial freezing . The selected technical solution was to dedicate a group per tunnel to secure all cold production

Reinforced steel panels inside / outside Special doors industrial trolleys 1200 mm x 2200 mm Special evaporators fin blades extended for continuous operation Sol tear sheet strengthened to running electric pallet trucks and isolated for a Above 10 H / day use Dimensions TCI 600 Useful interior dimensions: 1 200 x 2 600 (au sol) x 2 200 mm External dimensions: L 2 170 x P 2 770 x H 2 800 mm Evaporators: 2 vertical ventilation Fans: 4 x 16 500 = 66 000 m³ Like all ACFRI products, the Tunnels TCI 600 Double Box feature the ACFRI patented, Simply III®, which connects to the Internet to view remotely functions easily.

The cycles recorded by APC demonstrate the effectiveness of ACFRI equipment for all the products processed, in compliance with the announced performances. The full potential of cells is used, as well the new features of the Simply III® controller.

The patented program developed by Richard and Sébastien Comby, has the following innovative features:

This requirement at all levels for food safety has led APC to choose the partner that could guarantee performance and

•De-frosting by programmed ventilation without for energy savings.

• Blowing Sequence for drying trays of the water ventilation of the cooking cells.

• Delay of the rise inertia for probe heart to avoid a default core probe unwanted on too hot products.

•Auto temperature cycle adaptation by pass to the sequence of soft blowing degrees.

•Core and atmosphere probes independent

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In terms of energy saving, a new feature of Simply III® is particularly interesting.

Indeed, at the start of cycle, the controller manages ventilation without cold , thus achieving de-freezing by recycling of hot air, without using defrost heaters , resulting in substantial energy saving .

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The Emerson Cup 2017 Award – Celebrating The 10th Anniversary Of The Competition Supporting the cause of Excellence, Innovation & Energy Efficiency Owner Occupied 2.

IGBC Green New Buildings -Tenant Occupied 3.

IGBC Green Existing Buildings 4.

IGBC Green Healthcare Facilities 5.

IGBC Green Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS)

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he Emerson Cup completed a major landmark in its eventful saga, with the competition completing 10 years, since its inception in 2008. Over the years, The Emerson Cup has received hundreds of nominations, and is one of the first competitions to celebrate the entire spectrum of design- technology, energy efficiency, architecture, human comfort, and more in the Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning & Refrigeration (HVACR) industry.

The award is recognized as one of the most prestigious, marquee competitions of Indian HVACR industry and a platform for showcasing emerging trends and practices amongst its professionals.

The 10th Anniversary celebration held at Jaipur in conjunction with the India Green Building Council (IGBC) was historic and memorable with the Crème dela crème of the HVACR industry in attendance, together as one to recognize and reward talent.

The Emerson Cup 2017 had five award categories this year 1.

IGBC Green New Buildings-

Speaking on this occasion Shirish Adi, Vice President & Managing Director, India, Emerson’s Commercial & Residential platform said, “It is a momentous occasion with The Emerson Cup completing 10 years. Over the years, the award has evolved & grown with the changes in the HVACR industry and set benchmarks that fulfill our mission of improving human comfort, safeguarding food, saving energy and protecting the environment.” He went on to add “We are truly honored to host The Emerson cup each year in conjunction with the IGBC program and doing our bit to create a sustainable future.”

The awards were selected by an experienced and distinguished panel of judges who have won acclaim within the industry for their contributions and achievements. The first category of the evening, the IGBC Green New BuildingsOwner Occupied was conferred on Infosys Ltd, for the Infosys SDB 2&3 Pocharam, Hyderabad campus & ITC Ltd. for their Hotel Grand Chola, Chennai.

While the excellence award for the IGBC Green New Buildings- Owner

Occupied category was awarded to Godrej Properties Ltd. and SM Sehgal Foundation for their outstanding projects Godrej One, Mumbai and SM Sehgal Foundation Phase 2, Gurgaon respectively.

The award in IGBC Green Existing Buildings Category was won by Mumbai International Airport Pvt. Ltd. for their Terminal 2 & Mindtree for their East Campus at Bengaluru. Keeping into account the quality of entries and recognizing the close competition, the jury decided to give Commendation Awards in the Existing Buildings category to Delhi International Airport (P) Ltd. & Tata Sons-The Associated Building Co. Ltd. for their projects Terminal 3 of the Indira Gandhi International Airport Delhi & Tata Bombay House, Mumbai respectively.

In the newly introduced IGBC Green Healthcare category, Reliance Foundation won the excellence award for their Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital, Mumbai along with Max Healthcare Institute Ltd. for their Max Super Specialty Hospital, Bhatinda.

In the other new category of IGBC Green Mass Rapid Transit System (MRTS), the award was won by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation Ltd for their work on 15 Stations of the Delhi-Faridabad corridor. The Emerson Cup 2017 raised the bar further in terms of new technology and professional practices. What’s more, the Cup also turned the spotlight on new talent and aspirations.

Contract Manufacturing for Candies

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stablished in 1991, Swan Sweets Pvt. Ltd. is one of the most reputed and one of the largest sugar boiled confectionery contract manufacturers in India, located in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Since the beginning, Swan has been catering its customers with an unmatched quality and new technologies in confectionery. The clients are MNCs, corporates and more.

Manufacturing unit is spread over 7 acres of area and having built-up area of 9000 sq mtrs with fully automated candy manufacturing machines and impressive laboratory equipment, along with safe and hygienic practices ensuring a great quality product.

Swan has also been a winner of The

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

National Award for Quality in the year 2005 and has also won The Special Recognition Award - Entrepreneurship in 2008 by the Government of India.

The state of art manufacturing plant is FSSC 22000 certified and complies the highest manufacturing and quality standards.

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Anuga 2017: The clear number one for the global food industry Record fair closes on an excellent result: Around 1, 65,000 trade visitors from 198 countries Export and innovations are the growth drivers of the worldwide food industry

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he 34th Anuga was the best trade fair in a long time for many of the exhibitors. More than 7,400 companies from 107 countries, a new record, presented products from all over the world and all categories over the course of five days. Around 165,000 trade visitors from 198 countries took advantage of this unique offer for sourcing, information and ordering at top level. “Anuga is the world's biggest and most important business platform for the international food industry,” Gerald Böse, President and Chief Executive Officer of Koelnmesse, commented towards the end of the event. “The trade fair brings the global supply and demand together very precisely. With its clear concept and focus on relevant themes, it is a reliable marketplace for the global food world for customers from Germany and abroad.” In addition to the high level of internationality, which characterised the picture of the trade fair on all days, the quality of the visitors was once again outstanding. The trade fair was opened by the NRW Minister, Christina Schule Föcking. The honorary guest at the opening was the Indian Minister for the Food Processing Industries, Harsimrat Kaur Badal. India was the partner country of Anuga 2017.

“Once again we have experienced a record-setting Anuga,” remarked Friedhelm Dornseifer, President of the German Association of the German Retail Grocery Trade (BVLH). “The high interest from the international food industry proves that the trade fair is a must-attend event in the diaries of the food manufacturers and buyers.

Anyone, who wants to get a picture of how the world will eat and drink today and in the future, has come to the right place at Anuga every time. Besides the presentation of innovative products, the latest trends in trading with food were also the key focus of the trade fair. And these are digital. The customers will

become more and more increasingly omnishoppers. They expect a networked buying experience, where the bricksand-mortar trade, online media and the usage of mobile device all merge into one. But the digitalisation is not going to lead to the end of the supermarket. The consumers will continue to visit the shops to buy foodstuffs using all of their senses.

Each technological advance that supports the retail trade in providing its customers with the corresponding offers is very welcome.”

Chairman, Dr. Wolfgang Ingold, summed it up for the Federation of German Food and Drink Industries (BVE): “Today, growth in the food industry is only possible through exports. Every third Euro is already now earned abroad. As the world's largest and most important trade fair for food and beverages, Anuga is thus also the biggest and most important platform for the export business of the German food industry.

The German food manufacturers were once again this year able to impressively demonstrate that they have plenty more to offer than enjoyment - they are namely also the leaders in terms of quality, safety and diversity! That is also the reason why our food industry is among the TOP 3 export nations with a turnover of Euro 56.7 billion in the export business.

Innovations play a central role in retaining this leading position.

We are more innovative than any other branch of industry: Every year over 40,000 new products are introduced onto the market in Germany alone. Hence, Anuga is also the global leading trade fair of innovations.”

“Anuga demonstrated anew in the year 2017 its huge relevance, appeal and charisma for our entire industry,” emphasised Guido Zöllick, President of the German Association, DEHOGA. “Over the course of five fully-packed trade fair days, it was the unique source of

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inspiration for F&B trends, new products and forward-looking technologies for food professionals from all over the globe.”

Registration data of Anuga shows that the entire trade was present in Cologne, both from Germany and abroad. Amazon and JD.com were present from the online trade. Furthermore, buyers from numerous specialised online platforms were also among the visitors of Anuga.

Important importers and international wholesalers also travelled to Cologne to attend the trade fair.

It became evident again at Anuga that the trade fair is an indispensable sourcing platform: Many exhibitors were able to address their customers from the processing industry directly and conclude important contract transactions.

“This response shows that business is done in Cologne, what's more across all channels, from the classic trade, to the various categories of the out-ofhome market. And that at top and also international level,” stated Katharina C. Hamma, Chief Operating Officer of Koelnmesse.

The share of foreign participants was high both among the exhibitors (90% foreign exhibitors) as well as among the visitors.

The foreign share of visitors increased up to 75 per cent (2015: 68 per cent). “The growing number of buyers from abroad is clearly noticeable from the increased number of visitors,” explained Hamma.

The export-oriented food industry was thus able to reach an international and first-class trade audience at Anuga. The innovations, which as always were a key focus of Anuga, contributed towards providing the industry with new impulses and ideas.

These trend themes included food and beverages that are rich in protein, new products on the theme ‘superfoods’ and numerous new ready-to-go/ready-to-eat ideas.

Sustainable concepts as well as organic products were still high in demand, vegetarian and vegan themes were also a major focus. Alternative sources of protein like insects were a theme of intense discussion among the media. The next Anuga will take place from 5 to 9 October 2019.

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More Than A Brand Change

Minebea Intec is the new name for leading industrial measurement and inspection technology

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Mohan Bhat Managing Director

artorius Intec has changed its name to Minebea Intec.

This rebranding was the next logical step after having joined at that time the Minebea Group in the year 2015.

The Minebea Intec product portfolio includes industrial scales, process vessel and silo scales, checkweighers, metal detectors, X-ray inspection systems, process software solutions and aftersales-services. Via the company’s global presence, it stands beside its customers around the globe throughout the entire life cycle of its products and solutions, from assistance with selecting the right equipment, design-in support, installation and calibration, maintenance and repair services, through to embracing equipment upgrades and refurbishments and providing comprehensive user trainings.

President of Sales, Marketing & Service, Peter Grimley, said: “We have used the rebranding exercise as an opportunity to make improvements – from major investment in the area of research and development to the expansion of the sales and service footprint combined with a completely new brand image

and intuitive product design. The company’s service commitment is unequivocal. ‘We make daily life safer’ is both a standard we Peter Grimley set for ourselves and a President Sales, Marketing & Service promise to customers and consumers around the world.

Meanwhile the company slogan ‘The true measure’ underlines our position as a leading global supplier of products and solutions and the way in which we strive to set strong standards in all areas of the company.” The company has almost 70 years’ experience in supporting industry to ensure that manufactured goods have the right quality and do not contain any foreign bodies.

The ability to do this is based on the ‘German Quality’ of its products and services combined with a continuous investment in developing leading technology. As a result, tens of thousands of customers put their trust in Minebea Intec having enabled them to supply millions of products and solutions during their long history.

The Japanese parent group is a global manufacturer of precision electromechanical components,

supplying products to various industries.

With the new brand Minebea Mitsumi, the company recently announced a new corporate logo following business integration between Minebea Co., Ltd. (Minebea) and Mitsumi Electric Co., Ltd. (Mitsumi). The continued objective of Minebea Mitsumi inc. is to introduce new value through Electro Mechanics Solutions™ in a society where everything will be connected via the Internet of Things (IoT).

In India the company has recently expanded in new, spacious facilities in Bengaluru. Managing Director of Minebea Intec, Mohan Bhat underlines, “We have now additional space to assemble larger quantities of our Minebea Intec inspection products. Also, as per current planning, we will be starting production of Minebea Mitsumi products

by Q3 of 2017, catering to the automotive sector.”

Minebea Intec has around 1,000 employees as well as production and sales & service facilities in 17 countries around the globe. In India the company has 148 employees with a production facility measuring about 38,000 sq ft with 29,000 sq ft purely for manufacturing process.

India received $10 bn investment commitment in food processing industry high-growth and highprofit sector due to its huge potential for value addition, predominantly within the food processing industry.

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he Indian food services market is set to grow at 10 per cent annually to reach Rs 5.52 lakh crore in the next five years, according to the FICCITechnopak report that has highlighted the fact that the food sector has arisen as a

The food services sector is expected to have generated direct employment for 5.56 million people in the financial year 2016, which is expected to increase to 8.5-9 million by the year financial year 2021.

Indirect employment has seen a growth at CAGR of four per cent from 2013-2016

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

and expected to grow six per cent till 2021.

Further, the food services market in India both organised and unorganised is estimated at Rs 3.37 lakh crore in 2017.

The other reason for its growth is the high percentage of young and working population which is well travelled has double incomes and more eating out is driving the growth of the market.

Also availability of organised retail space is helping in consistent growth of Indian and international brands across different formats and the space is attracting interest from domestic as well as international private equity and venture capital funds.

TECH NEWS

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ACE Technologies introduces trendsetting Labelling technology in F& B industry

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CE Technologies would like to introduce trendsetting Labelling technology for todays & future labelling requirement in Food & Beverage industry as well as in Non-Food industry.

• Our Labelling technology is flexible & future – proof A fast moving market with increasing requirements concerning performance & flexibility in designs & a new labelling technologies is a challenge for us & our customers.

As a flexible partner, we offer you our intelligent & versatile machine concepts to realize a variety of possibilities for future – proof equipment solutions.

• High – end technology Universal Wet Glue labelling For the traditional wet glue labelling of pre – cut paper labels from the magazine

we present our newly designed oil lubricated labelling unit. The removable oscillating, rubberized glue palettes are adjustable in order to reach an optimal glue pattern.

A stainless steel glue roller & split glue scraper blade for glue – saving & fine adjustment of the glue thickness ensure a trouble – free handling in continuous operation & perfect label positioning.

• Hot melt wrap – around labelling For wrap – round labelling of paper or foil labels alternatively pre-cut from the magazine or from the label roll we use a special hot melt system for contact-free glue application.

The advantage of the closed hot melt systems is the reduced glue usage as well as reduced contamination of the machine, as only the start & end of the label are glued.

system is perfectly suitable for processing PET bottles or jars / cans.

• Flexible self – adhesive labelling In addition to cost saving advantages from elimination of label magazines & pallet fittings, the high flexibility in design & the possibility of using no-labellook labels also play a part.

Our accurate label transfer enables precise positioning, even in a container recess or larger label areas.

Self – adhesive label dispensing from the roll is synchronized with the container speed & transported to the dispenser lip by accurate servo control, positioned by micro scanners, transferred over the dispenser edge & applied to the

The use of hot melt means, that this India’s 1st News Portal for Agro, Food Processing & Allied Segments

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Agro & Food Processing November 2017

NEWS

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Raw-material sourcing and creation of agri-linkages needs more investment and representatives of 28 States of the Union.

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Prime Minister said there were opportunities in post-harvest management such as primary processing and storage, preservation infrastructure, cold chain and refrigerated transportation. Besides, there was immense potential for food processing and value-addition, especially in niche areas such as organic and fortified foods.

Many States have come up with attractive food processing policies to attract investment. “I urge each State to identify at least one food product for specialisation.

Similarly, each district can also select some food items for production, and one item for specialisation,” Modi said.

Modi even highlighted that increasing urbanisation and a growing middle class resulted in an ever-growing demand for wholesome, processed food. “Over a million passengers have a meal on a train in India, every single day.

Each one of them is a potential customer for the food processing industry. Such is the scale of opportunity that is waiting to be tapped.”

India currently ranks sixth in production and export. “India is now ripe for a ‘sweet revolution’.” The country exports fish and fisheries products to about 95 countries.

“We aim to make a big leap in the ocean economy through a 'blue revolution'. Our focus is on development of untapped areas, such as ornamental fisheries and trout farming. We also wish to explore new areas like pearl farming.”

India’s commitment to sustainable development was at the heart of the government’s thrust for organic farming.

The entire Northeast offered opportunities to create functional infrastructure for organic produce, he said.

On the government’s target to double farm incomes within five years, he said the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana, which aimed to create world class food processing infrastructure was expected to attract an investment of $5 billion, benefit two million farmers and generate more than half a million jobs over the next three years.”

The creation of mega food parks was a key component of this scheme. “Nine such parks are already operational, and more than 30 others are in the process of coming up across the country.

Farmer groups were being encouraged to set up units in these parks, thereby reducing wastage and transportation costs, and creating new jobs.”

rime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated World Food India (WFI) 2017 and suggested to the aerated drinks manufacturers to consider blending 5 per cent fruit juice in their products. Such a procedure had major potential as fruit juice-based drinks were an essential part of the Indian food habits.

The PM said, “The participation of the private sector had been increasing in many segments of the value chain but it should invest more in contract farming, raw material sourcing and creation of agri-linkages.

Many international companies in India had taken the lead in contract farming initiatives and there were huge opportunities for global supermarket chains that consider India as a major outsourcing hub.”

Modi added that, “Can we link India’s potential to the world's 122,Narayan Dhuru Street, Nagdevi Area Masjid Bunder (W) Mumbai - 400003 requirements? Can we Phone: 022-2341 4365, 2342 4647, 2342 2192 | Fax: 022 2342 4365 Email: venustrading@vsnl.com | vinit@venustradingcompany.com link Indian traditions Web: www.venustradingcompany.com with the future of mankind? Can we connect India's farmers with markets around the world?

These are some questions that I wish to leave with you.” WFI — a three-day mega event attended by around 2,000 people, over 200 companies from 30 countries, 18 ministerial and business delegations, nearly 50 global CEOs along with CEOs of all leading domestic food Complete piping & ttings, Valves & Automation system for Pharma, Dairy, Ice Cream, Food, Beverage & Chemical Industries. processing companies,

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

NEWS

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PepsiCo and Coca Cola losing share to local rivals in India

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n the aerated-beverages segment Coca-Cola and Pepsi have been losing share to local rivals, including Parle, Dabur and ITC even as the global soft-drink giants introduced more fruit-based and healthier products to reduce their reliance on sugary sodas.

In the overall juices, nectars and still drinks, the share of Coca-Cola’s largest fruit-based brand Maaza declined 230 basis points to 33.1 per cent, while Pepsi’s Slice fell 4.3 basis points to 9.6per cent during the year to September.

With a large segment of Indian consumers shifting to non-cola carbonates from regular cola drinks, most beverage companies, including Coke and Pepsi, are trying to grab a bigger share of the changing market.

But Maaza has maintained its absolute leadership in the mango segment with the highest share. The mango salience may have reduced marginally in the said period but within the mango segment, Maaza maintained its leadership position, with the same market share.

The shift in salience in non-mango has been captured ahead of competition by Minute Maid, which is growing at the healthiest rate in the segment..

PepsiCo India, said it “redefined its play in juice and has reduced investments on commoditised, low-margin segments, including low-juice content segments.

within B Natural, especially with region specific fruits, while Parle Agro transformed its go-to market strategy two years ago, increasing its infrastructure efficiency by over 40% and doubling distribution points.

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Khadya Khurak, (2nd -5th January 2018) Ahmedabad

Foodtech (25th -27th January 2018) Kerala Kochi Food Hospitality (18th -20th January 2018) MMRDA Ground BKC Gulf Food Dubai (18th-22nd February 2018) Dubai

The company has consciously reduced play in channels such as organised trade and in select geographies, in the mangobased juice segment while continuing to participate in the fast growing with Tropicana Slice 250 ml pack.

Acrax India nd th (22 -24 February 2018) BIEC Bangalore

Coke and PepsiCo’s local rivals, however, said that their rising share should not cause any surprise, for they better understood Indian consumer preferences.

Packplus South (9th -12th March 2018) Hyderabad ANUGA FOODTEC (20th -23rd March 2018) Cologne, Germany

Also, ITC has announced new launches

Consumers are graduating from syntheticbased products and now want those with natural content and shifting consumer tastes are prompting beverages giants to find ways to diversify away from traditional soda and high-calorie juice.

Aahaar New Delhi India

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

10th Anniversary BNF June 2018 Packplus (25th-28th July 2018) New Delhi

F I India (11th September 2018) Indian Ice Cream Congress & Expo Chennai 2018 Interna�onal Foodtech India (27th-29th September 2018) Mumbai Annapoorna (27th -29th September 2018) Mumbai Drink Technology (24th -26th October 2018) Mumbai India Food Show (2nd -5th November 2018) Ludhiana

NEWS

57

Lack of policy hinders the Organic farming in India high-yielding varieties of seeds.

However, in India, there is no such subsidy. Further, a majority of the government budget and subsidies are targeted towards chemical-based inputs and, in many states, less than 2per cent of the budget is allocated to organic farming Another blockage in the path of organic farmers is a serious shortage of good quality organic inputs, which increases the risk of loss of yield.

T

he Indian government has been commissioning measures to encourage organic farming with the aim to improve soil fertility and help to double the farmers’ incomes by the year 2022. The Prime Minister had visited Sikkim, India’s first organic state and encouraged other states to replicate the “Sikkim model”.

often provide that facility.

Some of the policy initiatives to promote organic farming and exports include development of an organic regulation for exports by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), removal of quantitative restriction on organic food exports, providing subsidies to farmers and other schemes such as the Mission Organic Value Chain Development for North Eastern Region.

Direct linkages to processors and retailers could have helped farmers to get a better price, but farmers lack the right linkages and hence have to depend on middlemen and mandis.

Despite these initiatives move to organic farming methods may not be that easy and organic farmers are not getting the expected premium price for their produce.

Many factor hinders its growth like the underdeveloped supply chain because of which small and mid-sized farmers located in hilly regions and tribal belts find it extremely difficult to access the market.

There is a shortage of pack houses and refrigerated vehicles, which leads to spoilage. Organic products have to be stored separately from conventional products to avoid cross-contamination and the existing supply chain does not

While the government is supporting organic product marketing through fairs and exhibitions, it does not give farmers a steady market. In a number of cases, the middlemen take away most of the profits and farmers are not able to earn a premium price.

Also the government is subsidizing farmers under the Participatory Guarantee System (PGS) for India, which is a selfcertification process supported through the PKVY scheme, these farmers are not allowed to export. In fact, the APEDA has made it mandatory to have a third-party certification for exports.

This is despite the fact that globally more than 100 countries, mostly developing countries, recognise the PGS. Unless farmers under PGS India are allowed to export, they cannot earn the premium price.

A number of countries, such as the United Kingdom, have carefully designed subsidies to compensate for the yield loss during the conversion period, as a farmer converts his/her land from conventional chemical-based farming to organic farming, there is a risk of loss in yield due to the withdrawal of chemical inputs and

Agro & Food Processing November 2017

The available organic fertilisers are much below the required quantity, and there are a number of spurious players in the market too. Similarly, there is a shortage of good quality organic seeds.

And the biggest challenge faced by organic farmers is the lack of an organic policy for the domestic market and imports. In the absence of regulation on labelling standard for organic production and logo, it is not possible to distinguish an organic product from a conventional product.

This has led to fraudulent practices and genuine players are not getting the premium, which the consumers of organic products are willing to pay. While the absence of a policy makes it difficult to punish fraudulent players, the government cannot enforce punishment on the basis of a voluntary certification process.

Therefore, over 79 per cent of the farmers opined that the certification process should be mandatory and the government should help farmers under PGS India to get the mandatory certification once their land is converted to organic.

In fact, over 91 per cent of survey participants pointed out that there should be a uniform logo for organic, which will help in product identification.

The study further highlighted that if the right policy measures are taken, then organic farming is expected to grow at 20per cent in the next five years and the farmers will see a rise in their income.

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Firoz H. Naqvi : +91-9867992299 Seema Shaikh : +91-7021555160 121, 1st Floor, Rassaz Multiplex, Mira Road (E), Thane - 401107. India. Tel: +91-22-28555069 / 28115068.Email: info@indianicecreamcongress.in Web: www.indianicecreamcongress.in

INDIAN ICE CREAM MANUFACTURERS ASSOCIATION Sudhir Shah-+91-9849025027 (Secretary IICMA) Samrat A. Upadhyay- +91-76988 69800 (Secretary General – IICMA) Regd. Ofce : A/801, 8th Floor, “Time Square” Building,C. G. Road, Nr. Lal Bunglow Char Rasta, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad - 380 009, Email: info@iicma.in Web: www.iicma.in

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