ADM Agro Industries India, a subsidiary of the US-based nutrition company, has offered to partner with more number of farmer producer companies (FPOs) as the share of direct purchase of commodities from these organisations in the entire purchase has reached about 80 per cent from about 20 per cent in last two years. However, the company is non-committal on expansion of its procurement business to other States from current Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka.

Participating in the webinar on Thursday, ADM Agro’s manager Amol Dhawan said the company, which has a soyabean processing plant of 2 lakh tonnes (lt) annual capacity, last year procured 1.45 lt of soyabean worth about ₹700 crore directly from FPOs. In 2025, it has purchased about 75,000 tonnes of soyabean, 1,200 tonnes of chana (gram) and 600 tonnes of tur (pigeonpea), so far, he added.

The company started working with FPOs from 2018, though it started operation around 2000 in India, Dhawan said. “Initially, 80 per cent of the purchase was done from open market while 10-20 per cent (directly) from farmers. Even until two years back, the share of FPOs in the total purchase made by the company was 10-20 per cent and 5-10 per cent from traders while remaining from farmers (in open market),” he explained.

According to him, ADM Agro deals with purchase of soyabean, chana and tur for which it has partnered with 300 FPOs and had transacted business with 147 of them in 2024. Asked by an FPO representative of Haryana whether the company will purchase from the State as well, Dhawan asked him to be in touch with ADM Agro for any opportunity if opens up in future.

Many other corporates have also started buying agriculture produce directly from FPOs after the government’s recent initiative of hosting webinar every week, connecting the farmer groups with leading companies.

Better prices

In case of wheat, FPOs have received better rates than mandis by selling directly to companies as some transactions costs are saved by the corporates when purchased directly, a senior official recently said adding states will be persuaded to waive off mandi fees for FPOs when they sell their produce as it will make the market yards competitive to offer better infrastructure.

Olam India is one of the few companies which has purchased over 800 tonnes of maize and over 3,000 tonnes of wheat from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar through FPOs, sources said. Other companies like Britannia, Mother Dairy, HIL (formerly Hindustan Insecticides) have also agreed to partner with FPOs, the sources said.

The weekly webinar on Thursday has been organised by the Union Agriculture Ministry at the initiative of Secretary Devesh Chaturvedi, when representatives of FPOs get a chance to directly interact with private company officials and others.

Published on June 12, 2025