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Bunge likely to enter biofuel business

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Udit Prasanna Mukherji Kolkata
Last Updated : Feb 06 2013 | 5:51 AM IST
Bunge Ltd, the $25 billion oilseed processing and bottling company, may enter the biofuel space in India.
 
The company has a strong presence in the biofuel market in Western Europe and the United States through host of joint ventures and subsidiaries.
 
Bunge entered the Indian market in 2003 with the purchase of Dalda brand from Hindustan Lever.
 
The regional general manager (Asia) of Bunge, Christopher White told Business Standard that the company would explore biofuel business opportunities in India.
 
He was in Kolkata for the launch of new range of Dalda edible oils in the eastern region.These are refined soybean oil and kanchi ghani mustard oil.
 
However, White pointed out that though it would explore the opportunities in biofuel in India, the global edible oil major does not have any immediate plan to bring any of its global edible oil brands in the country.
 
"Our experience is that food brands are mainly localised except a few. So we are not thinking of launching any of our US or European brands here," he said.
 
The managing director of Bunge India, Adhiraj Sarin, endorsed his view by saying that the company would rather look for acquiring strong regional brands in India.The company has already acquired a regional oil brand called Chambal in Rajasthan.
 
Describing the biofuel business of the company, he said that Bunge has a number of biofuel refineries in Western Europe and the United States.
 
"We have a joint venture outfit in biofuel in Germany. Besides, there are some wholly owned subsidiaries in Spain and other countries. We are also making ethanol from corn in the United States," he said.
 
According to him, Bunge is now exploring the opportunities of biofuel in Asia including India."We are definitely looking at this business here. But we have not yet finalised anything,"he added.
 
The Bunge India MD said that the company was targeting Rs 1,200 crore turnover in the current fiscal from Rs 850 crore in 2005-06.
 
Vanaspati accounts for around 50 per cent of the company's turnover while the rest came from other non-vanaspati edible oils.
 
 

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First Published: Sep 22 2006 | 12:00 AM IST

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