How KRBL turned out to be India’s Biggest Basmati Exporter?

I wish we had retained our full name, Khushi Ram and Behari Lal, instead of the acronym KRBL, since it speaks volumes about our legacy,’ reminisces Anil K Mittal. ‘After all, there’s a lot in a name.”
The famous Shakespearean phrase, ‘what’s in a name?’ has little to no importance in Anil K Mittal’s life.

‘I wish we had retained our full name, Khushi Ram and Behari Lal, instead of the acronym KRBL, since it speaks volumes about our legacy,’ reminisces Anil K Mittal. ‘After all, there’s a lot in a name.”

The famous Shakespearean phrase, ‘what’s in a name?’ has little to no importance in Anil K Mittal’s life. Anil is the chairman and managing director of India’s largest Basmati rice firm, KRBL – the manufacturers of the immensely popular India Gate Basmati Rice brand, among many others.

KRBL, since its inception in 1889, has come a long way. Currently headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, it was not the company actualized. It was founded in Lyallpur, the modern day Faisalabad situated in Pakistan. Back then, rice mills were simply a tiny chunk of their overall business plan and the company had interests in cotton spinning, textiles and banking.

Now, KRBL prides itself on being the world’s largest rice exporter and miller. It has over 30% share of domestic and 25% share of the branded basmati rice export market, with 2 functioning plants in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh with a combined milling capacity of 195 metric tons per hour.

For the financial year that ended on 31st March 2016, KRBL reported a total income of 3,594 crore, with a net profit of 334 crore. Over the last years, its capitalization has grown at a CAGR of 86%, touching 9,699 crore on March this year. Given the company’s brand value, lower cost of raw inputs and higher price realization, the statistics are not at all surprising.

The company managed it through various developments in its distribution channel, which further helped them penetrate and deepen their roots in the domestic market. They also successfully increased their presence across international markets and that helped them reduce financial vulnerabilities.

Delving back in time, Anil remembers how he formally joined the company in 1968 with the sole aim to leave an indelible mark in the family of businessmen. Once he had garnered enough experience, Anil set off on his own journey with a tender to supply barley to the army. That, he recalls, was the turning point in his life. And by the 90s, KRBL had transitioned into a fully-fledged rice business.

In 2003, after numerous successful decisions and eventful years, Anil decided to take over a sick unit in Punjab by the name of Oswal Agro Furane. The decision seems to have worked in their favour, and today, it is the largest Rice Mill Plant in the world, processing about a million ton of paddy in a year. With a capacity of 140 metric tons per hour, it processes about 7% of Punjab’s paddy cultivation.

Now run by Anil, his brothers and his daughter, KRBL firmly believes that strength of a firm comes from its own people. And the employees should be given a fair chance at functioning like entrepreneurs within their realms, if a business wants to grow.

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Olam Engages Local Communities for the Rice Harvest

One of the leading agri-businesses, Olam International operates from seed to shelf in more than 60 countries, providing food and raw materials to over 23,000 customers worldwide. With their global rice supply chain and immense market strength, they have successfully linked their rice farms and smallholder farmers to clients in all the major rice consuming country.

One of the leading agri-businesses, Olam International operates from seed to shelf in more than 60 countries, providing food and raw materials to over 23,000 customers worldwide. With their global rice supply chain and immense market strength, they have successfully linked their rice farms and smallholder farmers to clients in all the major rice consuming countries.

A producer of renowned Mama’s Pride and Chef’s Choice Rice, Olam International has started harvest in its dry season rice farming season. For the process of harvesting, a total of 11 combined harvesters and a splitter harvest machine were deployed. “The high-tech machineries couldn’t, however, stop the farms from involving more than 600 seasonal farmers from the host communities from participating in the farming process”, Mr. Pieter Nel said.

According to the farm officers, the dry season farm comprises of 3,000 hectares, out of the total of 12,920 hectares. The dry season rice farm is expected to yield up to 4.5 tons of rice per hectare, which is more than 300% of the national yield, which sits between 1.3-1.8 tons per hectare. The high yield can be accredited to Olam International for involving some of the best farming practices, including but not limited to the increased soil standards to meet rice varieties. As Nel told, it was done following a series of laboratory tests on different soils. Other practices involved aircrafts for seedlings, spraying effective pesticides and applying quality fertilizers.

Mark Mclean, who’s appointed as the farm manager told that 1,400 hectares would be added to the 3,000 already being used. The additional land would be utilized for the forthcoming rain-fed season. Mclean also stated that over 100 rice varieties with high yields are being studied with a view to adopt them. Currently, only 4 high yielding varieties are planted, namely L34, C90, C20 and Faro 44.

Laying importance on safety and quality, Madan Singh, the Director of quality assurance informed how the company conducts relevant analysis to ensure the rice meets the nutritional value and is safe and does not use chemicals indiscriminately during production.

Abubakar Ogashuwa, the company’s Community Relations Manager, mentioned that the farms have created access roads that have been instrumental in linking the farms to six host communities surrounding them, provided them with solar power, introduced scholarship for the students, constructed classrooms with school compounds and built boreholes for each of the 6 communities.

He further mentioned how the Olam farm is in constant talks with the herders and nomads around to avoid complications arising out of their animals invading the farms.

Read through our other blogs to stay updated on the latest news and events in the rice industry.

 

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