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ITC enters veggie mart with Farmland

Framland products are likely to be sold at 10% to 15% premium over local market rates

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S Sivakumar
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ITC is seeking a sizeable pie of the Rs 5 lakh crore consumer spend market for fruits and vegetables (F&V) in the country with the launch of its new brand ‘Farmland’.

To start with, the tobacco-to-fast-moving-consumer-goods (FMCG) major with revenues of over Rs 55,000 crore has introduced its first product ‘potato’ in four varieties in the Delhi market.

Sources say Apples will be the next product to join the Farmland bouquet a few months from now. Dehydrated onions is another product that will help ITC build the Farmland portfolio over the coming quarters.

S Sivakumar, group head - ITC’s agri-business and IT, said fresh fruits and vegetables are a fundamental part of the consumer’s food basket and are also key to providing enhanced incomes to farmers who are an integral part of ITC’s farm-to-fork value chain.

With a consumer spend of approximately Rs 5 lakh crore, the Indian F&V market is pegged at Rs 3 lakh crore for the producers. The total market for table potatoes in India is valued at Rs 70,000 crore with consumption in metros and mini-metros alone close to Rs 5,000 crore. “This is the market ITC’s Farmland potatoes range will address in the first phase,” the company said.

The four potato variants – natural low sugar, natural antioxidant, baby potatoes and french fry potatoes – will be available in 500 gram and one-kilogram packs.

Framland products are likely to be sold at 10% to 15% premium over local market rates. Sources told DNA Money that the potato variants are offered for Rs 25-31 for a one-kg pack.

Sanjiv Puri, chief executive officer and executive director, ITC Ltd, had earlier said that one new commodity will be introduced in the market every few months. “We are also working on onion dehydrates and plan to launch it before the year-end,” he had said during a media meeting in September this year.

"Our brand Farmland will provide a yet another win-win for the consumers by serving their emerging need for safe and nutritious fruits and vegetables as well as open up a new value-added market segment for the Indian farmers," said Sivakumar.

Farmland potatoes, according to ITC, are naturally low in fat and sugar, with fat content below 0.2% and sugar level below 2%. These have also been tested and endorsed by ICAR-CPRI, Shimla (Indian Council for Agricultural Research - Central Potato Research Institute).

While the potatoes are being introduced only in the Delhi to start with, ITC will make them available across top seven Indian cities over the next 10-12 months. As for its availability in Delhi, the company is targeting to sell the potatoes through 1,000 stores over the next three to four months.

While ITC has been operating in the seafood space with a fair amount of exports, the company recently launched 'super safe' prawns – tested for over 230 potential pesticides and contaminants – under the brand ITC Master Chef.

"We are going to increase our focus on perishables because India processes only 2-3% of the perishables and there is an enormous amount of wastage – almost Rs 92,000 crore is the estimated figure. We are going to bring in many of these perishable items to the consumers either in fresh and or enhanced shelf life (frozen, dehydrated and puree) form," Puri had said earlier.

The company is also working on creating health and wellness-related products using soy protein isolate. In an earlier interaction, Sivakumar had said that soy protein isolate could be a dedicated offering or used as an ingredient in a health/wellness product. The company has also acquired a 110-acre farm to grow medicinal and aromatic plants in Bhopal.

"The extracts (from medicinal and aromatic plants) will be used for creating variants in the existing range of products as well as creating new products altogether," he had said.

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