Plant nutrition firm Valagro bullish on India

Valagro, an Italy-based plant biostimulants and speciality nutrients firm, said it has high expectations for the Indian market, and hopes to close this year with a revenue of ₹50-55 crore, up from ₹37-crore worth of business it did last year.

The firm grew 61 per cent in 2016-17 and 54 per cent in 2017-18, and hopes to attain more or less similar kind of growth this year too, said Sanjay Tokala, Valagro’s country manager for India.

“World over, we hope to clock the revenue of $200 million this year. In the last three years, we had a double digit CAG, and our business plan for the next three years aims an annual growth of 16 per cent,” Giuseppe Natale, Valagro’s CEO, told BusinessLine.

Growth in India

Though Valagro had been selling its biostimulants, biofertlisers and biocontrol products — particularly for plantation and horticultural crops such as grapes, pomegranate, banana, cardamom and tomato — for many years, it became more active in the Indian market following its acquisition of the-Hyderabad-based Sri Biotech in 2015.

“We assure our farmers that for every ₹1 they spend on our solutions, they would get a return of ₹4-5,” said Natale. “We are investing in a big way in India as it is a priority country for us. Apart from serving the Indian market, we want to use it as a platform for catering to other countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The products we develop here would be exported to other countries in the region, he said.

According to Tokala, Valagro solutions are currently available in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh, apart from all South Indian States. The company also became one of the first ones to register its microbial solutions – developed using microorganisms isolated from Indian soil – with the National Biodiversity Authority (NBA).

“Our scientists have identified and isolated as many as 10 micro-organisms that help 18 crops from 14 locations. While firms dealing with microbial solutions are expected to register them with NBA, they hardly do as there is a lack of awareness,” he said.