Best Agrochem Pvt Ltd is leading manufacturer of agrochemical products and technicals in India. In the phase of great economic pressure, high competition and increasing regulatory and quality measures, Best Agrochem is doing well and take all these constraints as a challenge.
Recently, Krishi Jagran team interacted with Surinder Mattoo, vice president of sales and marketing, Best Agrochem Pvt Ltd, discussed on company's performance and about current scenario of agrochemical industry in India. He has 29 years vast experience in agrochemical industry. He started his career from Hindustan Liver Ltd. in 1986. After that he joined Garda chemical, there he worked for 17 years. Apart from these companies he is having in his portfolio the experience of several prestigious companies like UPL (5 years), Bharat Insecticide (2 years) and Tata chemicals (1/2 year).
Here, are the highlights of the excerpts from the interaction.
Q.1 Let us congratulate you for achieving the position in your company and having an experience of around 30 years. Would you kindly share your experience with us highlighting the key areas exactly your company is working on?
We are in the business of crop protection and marketing the agrochemicals , helping the Indian farmers to get the good yield from the crop he is growing with minimum loss. Our focus is on healthy living, sustainable growth, and the unique possibilities of agribusiness. Always , we are driven by the environment sensitive and forward thinking technology and an ability to adapt in an ever changing market. We feel pride in our rapid, flexible approach tailored to the needs of the Global Agrochemical Market. Our company is operating for over sixty years under the guiding principles of innovation and growth. We are a leading technicals developer and bulk manufacturer of all crop protection products that include complete range of insecticides, herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and plant nutrients. We are basically selling technicals and formulations to other agrochemical companies. Last year we enter in market to sale agro chemical under brand name Best Agrochem.
Q.2 Which crops your company are targeting ?
All major crops including rice, cotton, guar gum and pulses are the targeted crops, our company is working for these. Our company is also targeting horticultural crops like fruits and vegetable crops.
Q.3 Where is Company's market presence in India ?
At this time we have good market presence in Northern states , MP and Gujarat. Currently, We are planning to tap the market in other states of Western and Central India. Next year, we will cover the market of Maharashtra. We are getting good feed back by our customers. We are developing all range of agrochemical products even in month of July we are going to launch new product.
Q.4 Where company's manufacturing units are situated and what are its manufacturing capabilities ?
Our company has highly technical infrastructure and manufacturing facilities for production of high quality agrochemical products. We have four manufacturing units two plants in Uttar Pradesh and another two plants in J & K.
One of our manufacturing plant located at Barbala (UP) is produce various technicals and formulations grade insecticides, fungicides, pesticides , herbicides, various biofertilizers and plant growth regulators. The another plant located at Gajraula (UP) is produce various kind of formulation. Another two formulations plant located at Katua (J & k) and Samba (J & K) are totally dedicated towards formulation of agro chemicals.
The total combined production capacity of our manufacturing plants is about 25000-30000 mt per year.
Q.5 What should be USP of any agrochemical product ?
Elaborating the USP of any agrochemical product, Shri Mattu emphasized that the Agrochemical market is very huge and its consumption rate is very low. In India, we are far behind to global consumption rate of agro chemicals. The main reason is that our farmers getting nothing from their small piece of land. But today, we are living in era of technology. If we create new chemistry and generate new molecules. Irrespective of the high cost farmer attract towards it for getting the better result and good yield as well as the crop protection. So for any agrochemical company new innovation is main USP of the company.
Q.6 From last two-three years, there is slowdown in the agrochemical market. What is the exact scenario of agrochemical industry in India ? And how you foresee any Alternative to cope up this slow down ?
Yes, currently agrochemical industry is facing several constraints and its impact directly affect the market sentiments also. Basic problem is that Indian farmers are getting very poor recovery of their crop produce ultimately the only solution is cost cutting of agrochemicals. Yet, government do not have any concrete solutions which create distress in industry. Even, several multinational companies like Dupont, Syngenta, Bayer etc. are also in declining mode in these days.
There are lot of pressure to sale the stock of agrochemicals but demand is very poor. This situation is creating a high competition among several players even distributers also bargain very high to us. Punjab, the state where always high demand of agrochemicals, has declined nowadays.
High agrochemical consumption Crops like soyabean, cotton, Basmati rice etc. are also showing very low demand because farmers are getting very low recovery from these crops now. Weather remains the major risk for agrochemical firms. With farmers sentiments already weak, companies hope that current season will not face any major crop damages. Another season of crop can further dim the agrochemical industry. Towards the cope up this slowdown one way is that companies will do focus on its R & D and will develop new molecules and formulations. Because every new molecule has 5 to 10 years of life after that insects develop resistance towards these. Change in molecule and do innovation in technology is one way to face this slowdown. There should be always in technology buffer for future product after failure of one product that will take place. Now companies are focusing on Green technology that are also good for agrochemical industry. Let me sight an interesting story,`` When I was in Garda, our team had developed a unique combination, we had named the product 'Saffal' as the name itself is SAFFAL, it was very successful that time but with the change of time and small land holdings with the farmers and unpredictable monsoon, the process of R&D and bringing out new combinations are the need of the hour.`
Q.7 How you see the future opportunities of Agrochemical Industry?
The new and rising trends we had seen in the Sales and Marketing of the agrochemicals for the main crops and for Fruits and Vegetables, now, the time has come where we are discussing Bt cotton and other GM crops, the future of Agrochemicals are there for Cotton, because the Whitefly is major insect which spoil the cotton crop at very large scale. There is great scope of pesticides after failure of Bt cotton seeds. So development of new formulations to control whitefly create a great opportunity for the industry.
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