The Hindu Business Line : Nestle India to tap new markets to boost exports

NESTLE India is looking to improve export performance through new markets and product opportunities, as it feels that there is a need to reduce dependence on select products and markets. The company is in the process of developing export products for the Indian ethnic community overseas consisting of Indian recipe-based ready-to-cook pastes and `steamed instant green tea', a new formulation.

Though 67 per cent of the company's export sales come from the export of Nescafe instant coffee to Russia, this is precisely the market and single product that Nestle wants to reduce its dependence on. It has also listed this dependence as the company's weakness in the company SWOT analysis in Nestle India's annual report for year ending December 2003.

Its new markets for exports, where Indian culinary products, instant tea and Nescafe will be offered, include Hungary, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Canada, Middle East, Singapore, USA, UK and West Europe. The company's export sales during 2003 stood at around Rs 257crore, which was a 8. 9 per cent increase in value terms. This, according to the company, was positively influenced by the increase in per unit realisation in exports due to higher green coffee prices, This, however, was partially offset by the shift towards bulk packs. In volume terms, the sales increased by 3.2 per cent.

On the domestic front, the company sees potential for expansion in ``the smaller towns and other geographies''.

It also recognises that existing markets have not been fully tapped and that there is potential for growth through increased domestic penetration.

In fact, the company plans to leverage the Nestle technology to develop more products, specially in the sphere of nutrition, health and wellness. The company has also been test marketing a ready to cook recipe-mix for paneer tikka, chicken tikka and chicken biryani under the Maggi brand for the domestic market.

For the year 2003 domestic sales grew by 11.7 per cent in value and 10.8 per cent in volume terms.

The company is slated to release its 2004 first quarter results on Friday.

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