ITC-Marubeni to focus on China

The recent tie-up between ITC and Japanese trading company Marubeni would focus on China, Vietnam and the Philippines apart from Japanese and the domestic market.

"These are the markets where there is an increasing demand for soybean meals from feed mills catering to animal husbandry. Already, Indian soybean goes to these countries," said S Sivakumar, chief executive of ITC's agribusiness.

Though Marubeni was present in these countries previously, it was just a trading company without any manufacturing base. Similarly, ITC was exporting commodities to these nations but had no marketing infrastructure there, he said.

"We would start with export of soybean meal shortly. This would be followed by mangoes in the coming season. And we look forward to exporting maize from next kharif season since price is currently on the higher side," Sivakumar said.

The tie-up is expected to increase ITC's agri exports, which stood at Rs 1,500 crore in 2005-06.

"We would do the sourcing and Marubeni the marketing, or vice-versa. Marubeni may source pulses and vegetable oil internationally and it could be sold in India as the country imports these commodities in huge quantities," said Sivakumar.

ITC's e-Choupal network reaches out to more than 3.5 million farmers growing a range of crops - soybean, coffee, wheat, rice , pulses, shrimp - in over 36,000 villages through nearly 6,400 kiosks across nine states, namely Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttaranchal, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and UP, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Kerala.