Cargill India is now 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," says Siraj Chaudhry, chairman, Cargill India, during a media query.
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.
A corn storage facility is also slated to come up around the milling unit with an aim to drive backward integration for corn supply chain industry. The company is now keen to chart the inorganic growth path and is now 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.
At the time of acquisition, Leonardo had an annual sales volume at 3,000 tonnes. In fact Cargill India chalked this inorganic growth to expand into the growing Indian food market and gain more access to the healthy and quality conscious consumers.
The US-based agri-food major which has an annual turnover of about Rs.9,000 crore in India deals with edible oils and vansapati under different brands --Nature Fresh, Sweekar, Gemini, Rath and Sunflower Vanaspati.
The company is setting up a cattle feed plant at an investment of about Rs. 100 crore to cater to the needs of the dairy industry in Punjab and other neighbouring states which will be commissioned by March next year.
Cargill India commenced operation in 1987. It has businesses in refined oils, food ingredients, grain and oilseeds, sugar, cotton and animal feed.
