The announcement comes within weeks of the State government announcing its policy to promote oil palm cultivation
Hyderabad: Telangana State is set to snap up another major deal, with Yoga guru Baba Ramdev announcing that Ruchi Soya, now a part of Patanjali Group, will invest Rs 700 crore in oil palm-related activities in the State in the next few years.
Speaking exclusively to Telangana Today, he said the company also has plans to invest in the food processing sector, another thrust area of the State government.
The announcement comes within weeks of the State government announcing its policy to promote oil palm cultivation with the objective of achieving self-sufficiency and to reduce edible oil imports. The founder of Patanjali Group, one of India’s leading FMCG and health and wellness players, was quick to grab the opportunity.
The company, he said, presently has a two lakh seedling capacity nursery in Nalgonda for the oil palm business where high-quality material from Indonesia and Malaysia will be grown for further distribution to farmers. It has plans to develop an additional nursery in Suryapet, he said, adding: “We are scouting around for land to set up oil palm mill to process fresh fruit bunches.”
Ruchi Soya has two contract manufacturing units for biscuits and cookies in Hyderabad. It also has an extensive distribution network for edible oils, biscuits, noodles, breakfast cereals, Nutrela, among others. It also has distribution depots in Telangana.
“The food processing policy of Telangana State is transformational in scope as it places food security and sustainable production on priority. The policy has several other positive features – integrated value chains, enabling infrastructure, export orientation of units, and above all, the drive towards employment generation that will be a major consequence of industrial activity. We feel the policy will place Telangana on the fast track growth in the food processing sector. We have evaluated the policy and will be formulating the investment plans soon,” Baba Ramdev said.
“We want India to be self-sufficient in the edible oil segment. Ruchi soya is known for edible oil and commodities. We will keep its soul alive and also make it into a food and nutraceuticals company. In the Indian market, edible oils will continue to be a key segment for us. However, 80 per cent of the business and the profit will come from food and nutraceutical operations,” he said.
Stating that during the pandemic, edible oil, soya chunks, neutraceuticals, biscuits, dental, hair and skincare segments, honey, and chawanprash among others, had done well, the yoga guru said: “We want to be the leader in the biscuit segment. We have launched maida-free biscuits. Our focus will be on breakfast cereals, atta noodles, pickles, and ketchup.”
Patanjali’s turnover is about Rs 14,000 crore and that of Ruchi Soya is about Rs 16,000 crore. Patanjali is now the second largest company in the FMCG segment, he said, adding that it was hoping for market regulator SEBI’s nod shortly for its proposed Further Public Offer (FPO).
“We have worked out what we can do in TS. We are serious about Telangana plans as the State Government is proactive. We will take up oil palm plantation in the State and we will look to start that in the shortest possible time,” Sanjeev Kumar Asthana, CEO, Ruchi Soya, said.
