Adani Wilmar, manufacturer and distributor of cooking oils, is teaming up with the Solvent Extractors Association of India (SEA) to promote rice bran cooking oil in the country. SEA is a trade and industry body comprising oilseed processors.

Biprabuddha Chatterjee, Head-Research and Development, Adani Wilmar said, “Since we were getting low response for the rice bran oil variant we have approached the Solvent Extractors Association to promote its virtues . Our ad campaign was also done to promote the category.”

Having launched the rice bran health variant under the Fortune franchise towards the end of last year, the slow offtake of product has led Adani Wilmar to launch an aggressive campaign (to the extent of targeting competitors such as Marico’s Saffola with comparative advertising) to build the still nascent category.

Currently, rice bran oil market is estimated at 600 tonnes, with Fortune leading with a 23 per cent volume share in the category.

“While rice bran oil has existed for several years, there was not much awareness about it as most companies did not have enough marketing muscle to promote it,” said Chatterjee.

Adani Wilmar has also got nutritionist Anjali Mukerjee to endorse its Fortune Rice Bran oil through certain commercials.

Marico’s Saffola has also been selling blended oils with rice bran as an ingredient commanding a premium in the branded edible oil category.

B.V Mehta, Executive Director, The Solvent Extractors Association, said, India is the second largest producer of rice after China and has the potential to produce over 14 lakh tonnes of rice bran oil. However, currently we produce about 9 lakh tonnes, of which 3 lakh are used as edible oil. SEA is promoting rice bran oil as one of the ‘world’s healthiest oil’, with anti-oxidant properties which help in reducing cholesterol and are more suited for Indian cooking.

purvita@thehindu.co.in

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