The Hindu Business Line : Adani Wilmar plans to forge ties with farmers

EDIBLE oils major Adani Wilmar Ltd is contemplating establishing a long-term relationship with farmers and for that it is looking into several models including ITC's e-choupal.

According to Mr Pranav Adani, Executive Director of Adani Wilmar, there is no immediate need to establish such relationships as there is enough availability of oilseeds in the country.

"In the last two years rains have been good in India. So there was enough production of oilseeds. Moreover, the farmers have also realised that there is a huge demand for oilseeds. So they have shifted over to it," Mr Adani told presspersons.

He felt that such relationships between the farmers and the buyers gain importance once there is a shortage of oilseeds in the market during a drought. At present, Adani Wilmar buys oilseeds from the mandis in different places, which is dominated by middlemen.

"We are trying to bring the farmers straight to our factories, by which we will surpass the middle-men and would also be able to give a better price to the farmer. In any case we will have to give the best price to the farmer otherwise no relationship will develop," he said.

Regarding ITC's e-choupal, Mr Adani said it was just one model among several others. Some companies also help the farmers with tractors, seeds and fertilizers to ensure that the farm produce was sold to them.

He also ruled out any sort of corporate farming by the Rs 8,000-crore Ahmedabad-based Adani Group in the future. They will also restrict their operations within oilseeds and will not diversify into other food products.

The company is already manufacturing and marketing mustard oil, soybean oil, sunflower oil, groundnut oil, palmolein oil and vanaspati. In future, Mr Adani said, the company may introduce rice-bran oil.

On Friday, Adani Wilmar, the 50:50 joint venture between Adani Exports Ltd and Wilmar Trading Pte Ltd, introduced Fortune Filtered Mustard Oil in West Bengal. In 2003-04, it registered a turnover of Rs 1850 crore against Rs 1156 crore in 02-03.