Cooperative major Nafed is aiming to increase its turnover to around Rs 40,000 crore in the current fiscal from nearly Rs 30,000 crore in FY26 by expanding its retail business and ramping up procurement of pulses, oilseeds and onions for the government’s buffer, a senior official said.
“Our sales turnover in the first quarter of the current fiscal year has been quite robust and we continue to expand our partnership with retailers, instiutional buyers and exporters to boost sales of our products this fiscal,” Deepak Agarwal, Managing Director, Nafed, told FE. In FY26, Nafed had earned a net profit of Rs 405 crore, Agarwal said. In 2024-25, the federation reported a turnover of Rs 26,946 crore and a net profit of Rs 565 crore.
Nafed, one of the biggest agri-cooperative, annually procures 4 to 5 million tonne (MT) of pulses, oilseeds and onion annually under the government’s Prices Support Scheme (PSS) and Price Stabilisation Fund (PSF) from the farmers from creating buffer and this operation still contributes over 80% of its sale turnover. The federation earns a commission of 1% on the value of procurement of pulses, oilseeds and pulses under PSF and PSF while it gets 0.5% on the disposal of the commodities from the government.
“Currently we are holding over 3 MT of pulses under a buffer, which will liquidated after we see the impact of El nino on crop yield,” Agarwal said.
Expanding Food Partnerships
The federation is aiming to further expand its retail business of supplying and selling a host of food products through partnerships with canteen store department (CSD) of defence ministry, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation and Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation or Amul.
The federation supplies its own range of consumer products including pulses, edible oils, sugar, tea, spices, dry fruits, Ready-to-Eat products etc. For boosting cultivation of organic crops by farmers, the federation has launched several products including pulses, flour, spices, grains, honey etc under the brand ‘Organic Soul’.
Several products of the federation are exported through global retailers such Lulu group In addition, Nafed also procures and supplies pulses on behalf of state governments such as Gujarat for distribution through the public distribution system.
Digital Overhaul
Recently, the federation launched its e-auction portal – NAFEX.in – for selling agricultural commodities, while currently it uses private platforms such as mjunction, NCDEX e Markets – NeML and E-Teach for selling of procured commodities in the open market in a calibrated manner.
To improve efficiency in grain management, NAFED has launched the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform – Saksham – which would integrate key business processes on a single digital platform. Through E-Samriddhi portal, the federation has registered over 4.3 million farmers for procurement of pulses and oilseeds under PSS and PSF.