Cargill India is gearing up to commission its Karnataka corn mill plant at Davanagere that was set up with an investment of Rs 600 crore. It is also scouting for strategic acquisitions of oil brands.
The processing plant, with an annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes, would produce modified starch for the consuming processed food and pharma industries.
“Our Karnataka corn milling plant is under construction. It will be operational in October this year,” Siraj Chaudhry, chairman, Cargill India, was quoted as saying
According to the company, the Davanagere plant will directly benefit farmers from the region and is expected to generate employment opportunity for about 390 people in the region. The company is reportedly scouting to acquire well-known edible oil brands. In the past, it had obtained major brands including ‘Sunflower Vansapati’ from Wipro in 2012 and ‘Sweekar’ from Marico and ‘Rath’ Vanaspati from Agro Tech.
In February 2014, Cargill India had acquired Dalmia Continental’s olive oil business known for its ‘Leonardo’ brand, for a less than Rs 100 crore. This olive oil business has grown by 20 per cent since it acquired the brand.
The US-based agri-food major ,which has an annual turnover of about Rs.9,000 crore in India, markets edible oils under the Nature Fresh, Sweekar, Gemini, Rath and Sunflower Vanaspati brnad names.
According to a study by KPMG-FICCI, about 80 per cent of the consumers are victims of deceptive counterfeiting, i.e. they buy fake goods in the belief of buying genuine ones
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