The Indian arm of global agri business conglomerate, Cargill, is planning to enter the animal feed industry, an area where it has established a vast business globally. Blessed with the largest cattle, buffalo and goat population, the country offers tremendous growth opportunities for feed manufacturers.
“We want to grow our animal feed business in India. We have a presence in the northern region as far as cattle and poultry feed are concerned. For aqua feed, we are dominant in the south. Seeing the growth in demand, we are looking at expansion in these regions,” said its Chairman Siraj Chaudhry.
Cargill will have to compete with the likes of Godrej Agrovet and Venky’s.
The Indian animal feed industry is broadly categorised into poultry, cattle and aqua feed. Though quite old, it is still in a nascent stage, supplying 10 per cent of cattle and aqua feed and 50 per cent of poultry feed in India, says a Rabobank report. The bulk of the remaining feed is being produced by the unorganised sector, which comprises of home and custom mixers. The total production of compound feed for all livestock stands at 17 million tonnes.
According to Pawan Kumar, an animal feed analyst at Rabobank, the feed requirement for cattle as well as poultry is expected to increase.
“This is one business where Cargill has considerable global knowledge and experience. We would like to employ the same for the benefit of the Indian farmers. Meat, poultry and dairy consumption is expanding and there is a need to improve production with better inputs. We have a good global experience and think we can replicate it in India,” Chaudhry said.
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Cargill provides customised animal productivity solutions to commercial producers across the US, Europe, and Asia, apart from supplying branded feed and ingredients to feed manufacturers and retailers.
Cargill Animal Nutrition develops and markets a broad range of animal feeds and customised animal productivity solutions to commercial producers in 28 countries across North and South America, Europe and Asia. The business unit is supported by 180 plants worldwide.
The animal feed industry is evolving from being a fragmented sector to an organised one. It is increasingly using modern and sophisticated methods to incorporate the best global practices. The industry’s growth and potential are evident from the fact that India is among the largest livestock-producing countries and that the feed industry has been characterised by home mixers.