Soft drinks major PepsiCo is aggressively working towards manufacturing its breakfast cereals brand Quaker Oats in India and is hopeful to actualise its plans within two years.
The company is working closely with farmers in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan for growing oats from the last one year. Besides to carry our the field trials for the product, the company is associated with Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI) in Jhansi which is under the administrative control of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, is mandated to conduct basic, strategic, applied and adaptive research development and training in forage production and it’s utilisation.
Sharing more details with FE on the project, Pepsico India Holdings executive vice-president agro Nishchint Bhatia said, ?Currently we are importing Quaker Oats from Australia to India and carrying out the packaging in the plant situated in Pune. We started selling quaker here last year and driven by the response we thought to manufacture the brand from here. The process is on to evaluate the feasibility of producing oats here to meet the market demands. Once the seeds are tested successfully, varieties listed and the processing details worked out, the company would start growing oats in India?.
The company also has manufacturing plant spread over seven and half acres in Channo, Patiala where it is producing its range of snacks Lays, Kurkure, Uncle Chips, Ruffles and Cheetos. If the trials for growing oats see success then quaker brand will also be produced from here.
Talking about company’s another initiatives, Nishchint Bhatia revealed that Pepsico will cover 50,000-60,000 acres involving around 40,000 farmers in ten states of the country including Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Rajasthan under weather insurance for potato seeds.
This move is aimed at procuring high quality potatoes to meet the demand for producing company’s different range of snacks. Currently, the company holds the demand for 150,000 tonnes of potatoes per annum for its products.
PepsiCo on Thursday handed over Rs 17.67 lakh as weather insurance to the farmers of Amloh and Fatehgarh Sahib districts in Punjab. Under this scheme the company has reached out to 145 farmers and has covered an area of 915 acres in Punjab alone.
Nishchint Bhatia said that to derisk the farmers, the company has partnered with ICICI Lombard and has developed the weather insurance cover for the contract farmers in India. However a farmers has to shell out a high price Rs 1,600 per acre as the premium.