Advanta looks at deeper inroads into Apac, Latam

Advanta India Ltd, a Bangalore-based seed manufacturing company with subsidiaries in Australia, Argentina and Thailand, is planning to penetrate deeper into the Asia Pacific and Latin American countries.

According to internal sources of the company, the management has recognised countries like Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh in the Asia Pacific and, Columbia and Brazil in Latin America.

Sources also added that the company is in negotiation with some Japanese bio-tech companies to get licence of their technology.

Advanta India, a United Phosphorus Ltd (UPL) subsidiary is looking to expand its operations in the Asia Pacific and Latin American countries as part of their future plans.

Sateesh Hegde, the chief operating officer (COO), told Business Standard, "The company's future plans includes further expansion into the Asia Pacific and Latin America. We will also focus more on the R&D operations being carried out in India, Australia, Argentina and Thailand. In R&D our main focus will remain development of Germplasm or seed bank."

He, however, refused to divulge the names of the countries the company plans to enter.

However, sources said, "The company has identified three countries in the Asia Pacific and two more countries in Latin America. These includes Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh in the Asia Pacific and, Columbia and Brazil in Latin America. The company may also go in for technological collaboration with some Japanese BT companies for the license of their technologies." However, he refused to reveal the names of the Japanese companies.

Sources added that the company might have some plans also to enter the Chinese market as now the communist regime of the country has opened its doors to outsider companies.

Elaborating more on the new countries in the horizon, the official said, "The company supplies seeds of various crops in these countries, but the markets are maturing there and the company feels that it's the right time to enter these countries. The company already has a presence in both these regions, now the management wants to expand its presence there."

On the other hand second biggest focus of Advanta India will be on its R&D operations.

Talking about this Hegde said, "We will pay extra focus on developing the Germplasm or the seed bank where we can store the high quality seeds and develop use their genes to develop more quality seeds. The seed bank can be very helpful in developing seeds according to the need of the day and which can suit different weathers and soil conditions."

Hegde added that the company is spending around seven per cent of its total sales turnover after farmers education.

"We are spending seven per cent of our total annual sales turnover after farmer's education. Farmers need to be made aware of the various technologies and various methods of using the seeds. We have 138 marketing executives in India who carry out such programmes across the country and our dealers also carry out such awareness programmes on their own before the beginning of every season."

Hegde added that the company is also spending seven per cent of its total annual sales turnover after R&D and the percentage will remain same for near future as the expenditure amount after R&D will automatically increase with the company's turnover growth.