Topic: RETAILING -- In Rural India Posted: 03/Apr/2008 at 12:38pm
Now that organized retailers are also opening & focussing on there business in rural india / villages. Is this the roght time to invest in them or should we wait more for the picture to clear.
some of these are
dcm hariyali,
godrej agrovet,
itc e-choupal
If any one knows any more companies he can add here with a short write up on them, so that then we can use collective wisdom of TED to form an opinion
thnx
Women are like the stock market Coz they're irrational n can bankrupt u if u're not careful
"Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar" is a pioneering micro level effort, which is creating a far-reaching positive impact in bringing a qualitative change and revolutionizing the farming sector in India. It is also an example of how well meaning corporates can contribute to development of agriculture by building sustainable business models.
DCM Shriram Consolidated Ltd. (DSCL), capitalising its over 35 years of experience in the agri-input markets & first hand knowledge of Indian farmers, is setting up a chain of centres aimed at providing end-to-end ground level support to the Indian farmer & thereby improving his "profitability" & "productivity".
The key constraints of the Indian farming sector, being addressed by "Hariyali" are:
Lack of last mile delivery mechanism of modern agriculture know-how & practices.
Lack of availability of critical good quality agri-inputs.
"Middlemen" driven farmer interface.
High cost credit.
Lack of direct access to buyers of varied & high value crops.
Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar
The "Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar" chain, seeks to empower the farmer by setting up centres, which provide all encompassing solutions to the farmers under one roof.
Each "Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar" centre operates in a catchment of about 20 kms. A typical centre caters to agricultural land of about 50000-70000 acres and impacts the life of approx. 15000 farmers.
Each centre is engaged in:
Bridging the last mile: Provides handholding to improve the quality of agriculture in the area. Provides 24X7 support through a team of qualified agronomists based at the centre.
Quality Agri-Inputs: Provides a complete range of good quality, multi-brand agri inputs like fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, farm implements & tools, veterinary products, animal feed, irrigation items and other key inputs like diesel, petrol at fair prices.
Financial Services: Provides access to modern retail banking & farm credit through simplified and transparent processes as also other financial services like insurance etc.
Farm Output Services: Farm produce buyback opportunities, access to new markets & output related services.
Other Products and Services:Fuels, FMCG, Consumer Goods and Durables,Apparels etc.
These centers provide the much needed respect/dignity and freedom to the Indian farmer. In the near future, Hariyali Kisaan Bazaars plan to move beyond agri to meet the other needs of farmers as customers.
IT has been a critical backbone to the chain of centres. It is being used to provide online support on latest technical advancements, weather forecasts, mandi (market) prices, fair & transparent billing to farmers as well as in maintaining extensive farmer databases with micro information about the farmers' field to provide customized service to the farmers.
Farmer Response
So far, over 125 "Hariyali" outlets have been set up in different states across India which we plan to scale up to 300 by Dec, 2008.
The ground-level agri-support is already yielding results in the farmer's fields. Whether it is adoption rate of high yielding seeds, right doses of fertilization, productivity of cattle-feed, moisture conservation measures, adoption of new crops/allied occupations or adoption of new technologies like zero tillage, the farmers in catchment of Hariyali centres are already way ahead of the national averages.
Future Plans
Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar has plans to rapidly scale up the operations & create a national footprint covering all the major agricultural markets of the country. This would mean catering to cultivable land of over 30 million acres and touching the lives of over 10 million farmers.
Women are like the stock market Coz they're irrational n can bankrupt u if u're not careful
“Hariyali” to provide back-end support to retail chains for farm produce
March 27th, 2007 ·
No argument in favour of modern retail can ever be completed without talking about the benefits that will accrue from direct procurement of farm produce and creation of back-end infrastructure. This, experts believe, will translate into 40-odd per cent benefit to farmers and consumers. This would also result in the savings accruing from rotting of fresh products.
Most of this benefit will, however, require adoption of contract farming and elimination of multi layered middlemen system.
Although exciting, despite good intentions and obvious advantages, only a handful of retailers like Reliance, ITC, Tatas and Bharti will have the wherewithals to undertake this as most of the rest will find it extremely hard to organise a pan-India network , which besides huge investment will require manpower and other resources to carry out the activity on such a massive scale.
While, Reliance Retail has initiated ‘contract farming’ to service its ‘Fresh’ and ‘Rangers Farm‘ outlets, Bharti has ventured into ‘corporate farming’ through ‘Field Fresh,’ through its joint venture with Rothschilds. While, ITC, for several years, has been also active on rural front through ‘Chaupal Sagar’ outlets and has recently launched ‘Chaupal Fresh‘ retail chain for basically selling farm produce, Tatas are also getting into agri-retail through a joint venture with the Ireland-based ‘Total’
What then is the solution?
DCM Shriram Consolidated (DSCL), owned by Ajay and Vikram Srirams, as reported earlier, is planning to fill in the gap by stepping in as the ‘interface’ between farmers and retailers. DSCL, will leverage its network of “Hariyali Kisan Bazaar” outlets, to source ‘fresh’ (horticulture) produce as well as grains like wheat and rice from farmers and supply the same to various retail chains and mandis across the country.
While, DSCL will place contract farming orders for produce on farmers, it will invest heavily on creating back-end infrastructure as it will be required to set up an extensive network of cold chain, refrigeration, transportation and distribution centres. DSCL’s pan-India presence in rural India will help it reach a large network of farmers. DSCL will also expand its existing network of 65 Haryali outlets to 200 outlets by 2008. The “Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar” chain outlets provide comprehensive solutions to the farmers under one roof. Each “Hariyali Kisaan Bazaar” centre typically operates in a catchment of about 20 kms and caters to agricultural land of about 50000-70000 acres and impacts the life of approx. 15000 farmers. Each Haryali outlet among others tries to bridge the last mile gap for providing agriculture inputs and know-how to the farmers besides offering financial and farm output services.
DSCL is currently running a pilot project on similar lines for Kishore Biyani owned Big Bazaar (Pantaloon Retail) and S. Goenka (RPG Group) owned Spencer’s Retail.
Godrej Agrovet was formerly a division of Godrej Soaps Limited. It was set up as a separate company with focus on the agri-sector. Over the years, the company has developed and nurtured a close relationship with farmers. Providing them with innovative Products, as well as educating them on world-class farming practices.
Together with its subsidiaries Goldmohur Foods and Feeds Limited and Golden Feed Products Limited , Godrej Agrovet has revenues close to Rs 1000 Crores (US $ 250 million - FY 2007). The activities of the company are vast : Compound Animal feeds, Agricultural Inputs, Integrated Poultry Business, Oil Palm Plantations, Plant Biotech, Retailing of Fresh Farm Produce in urban areas, and rural retailing of a wide range of products including Agricultural inputs.
Godrej Agrovet acquired Goldmohur Foods and Feeds Limited from Hindustan Lever, a Unilever subsidiary in India, in 2001.Goldmohur Foods and Feeds Limited enjoys strong brand equity due to its poultry and cattle feed brands. Goldmohur Foods and Feeds Limited has a state-of-the-art R&D centre in Bangalore named 'ANIC' (Animal Nutrition Innovation Centre). This centre is devoted to development of innovative animal feed products. Today, Godrej Agrovet together with its subsidiaries has manufacturing facilities spread over 40 strategic locations and a network of over 10,000 distributors, dealers and C&F agents. In its journey of growth, Godrej Agrovet has set new standards of corporate performance, reliably delivering quality products and services to all its customers at competitive prices.
STRATEGIC TIE-UPS : Strategic tie-ups and acquisitions have been a way of life at Godrej Agrovet Limited. Meaningful alliances and useful acquisitions have been providing impetus to its growth. The acquisition of business have been in different segments ranging from Goldmohur Foods and Feeds (Animal Feed), to India Poultry Farm (Poultry), Krithika (Oil Palm Plantations), and Higashimaru (Marketing of Shrimp Feed). Strategic investments have been made in business, which have a strategic fit and which complement our business e.g. Creamline (Diary), Polchem (Bio-technology).
GLOBAL FORAYS :Having successfully grown to be the leader in many segments, Godrej Agrovet feels confident to take on global competition and has started making its presence felt in the international arena too. A joint venture with ACI Group of Bangladesh for poultry and feed operations in Bangladesh, and acquisition of controlling stake in Al-Rahaba, which runs broiler farms in UAE exemplify this confidence.
Edited by gopal - 03/Apr/2008 at 12:45pm
Women are like the stock market Coz they're irrational n can bankrupt u if u're not careful
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Posted: 03/Apr/2008 at 12:45pm
I think ITC's Echaupal's initiative should be the forerunner in terms of earnings. They have wired up the entire rural India and after Fy10 this projects should start creating immense benefits.
Maybe the moderate tobacco sales would be assisted by the revenues from echaupal!
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The first Godrej Aadhaar Centre was started in December 2003 in Manchar, Pune District. Since then Godrej Aadhaar Centres have been set up across the country in the states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and West Bengal.
These centres provide valuable technical guidance, soil & water testing services. They also retail quality products of leading companies. Aadhaar centres also a facilitate credit to farmers and provide a platform to sell their produce. To farmers, it’s a complete solution under one roof.
Key Highlights
Godrej Aadhaar, to provide complete agricultural solutions to farmers
NATURE'S BASKET
Nature’s Basket is the first-of-its-kind store selling a wide range of vegetables, fruits and herbs, both local and exotic. The first Nature’s Basket outlet was opened at Bhulabhai Desai Road, Mumbai. Two more Nature’s Basket outlets have opened at Cuffe Parade, South Mumbai and Lokhandwala, North Mumbai. Many more outlets are in the offing in different cities across the country.
Key Highlights
Nature’s Basket, a first-of-its-kind, one-stop retail outlet for fresh farm produce
Women are like the stock market Coz they're irrational n can bankrupt u if u're not careful
I think ITC's Echaupal's initiative should be the forerunner in terms of earnings. They have wired up the entire rural India and after Fy10 this projects should start creating immense benefits.
Maybe the moderate tobacco sales would be assisted by the revenues from echaupal!
Basant Ji,
Can you share more info on ITC e-choupal since I am unable to get much info.
Further Hariali has tied up with HDFC bank & HDFC to operate co-operarative banks in there hariyali outlet, they will also act as agents for HDFC life, drafts, HDFC loans & HDFC mutual funds
Similarily Godrej Agrovet is also about to sign a tie up with a bank to act as its agent and offer all banking services in its rural outlets.
Is e-choaupal also having any such initiative
Women are like the stock market Coz they're irrational n can bankrupt u if u're not careful
The Agri-Inputs division of Godrej Agrovet Limited was started in the year 1997. Its primary objective was to market plant growth promoters developed by the company's very own in-house R&D Department. There's been no looking back since then. Today, the division can take credit for creating many unique and innovative agricultural solutions that cover the entire range of agricultural crops.
These products, while improving agricultural productivity and profitability, cause zero -minimal damage to the environment. The company also provides farmers with technical advice and services. A technically qualified field force works with the farmers, conducting method and result demonstrations to educate them on maximizing farm productivity.
Key Highlights
Largest marketer of unique innovative agricultural products
OIL PALM DIVISION
In order to bridge the widening gap between demand and production for edible oils in India, Oil Palm Division was started in the early 90's. Over the years, Godrej Agrovet has developed 6500 hectares of oil palm in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Goa and Karnataka. Oil mills have been set up in Andhra Pradesh and Goa. Oil Palm plantation activities have also been taken up in Gujarat, Orissa and Mizoram.
Godrej Agrovet has put together a dedicated extension team that helps oil palm growers improve productivity. Godrej Agrovet has set up one-stop shops providing farmers with seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, technical guidance on cultivation and 100% buyback of fresh fruit bunches.
With such a strong commitment to development and service, it is no wonder that Godrej Agrovet is today, the largest producer of palm oil in the country.
Key Highlights
Largest producer of palm oil in India
Dedicated and trained team
Factories in Andhra Pradesh and Goa
Supported by best quality seeds & 100% buyback of fresh fruits
PLANT BIOTECH DIVISION
Godrej Plant Biotech Division is engaged in micro-propagation of plants through tissue culture. It is also actively involved in contract research on another culture, somaclonal variation, production of secondary metabolites through plant cell culture and genetic engineering. It also exports foliage, flowering, fruits and medicinal and oil bearing plants.
The Division has four growth rooms conforming to US class 100, 40 Laminar airflow workstations and a large environmentally controlled fully automated greenhouse for hardening tissue culture plants.
Its also provides technical guidance ranging from resource analysis to crop production and produce marketing. This guidance is provided in three phases:
Phase 1: Pre-planting: The company carries out resource analysis on soil and water and provides advice on climatic suitability to the crop.
Phase 2: Planting to harvest: A wholesome crop cultural practice is provided. Periodic visits are conducted to monitor the crop and ensure full productivity.
Phase 3: Post-harvest and marketing: The company provides market intelligence on produce marketing in different parts of the country.
Women are like the stock market Coz they're irrational n can bankrupt u if u're not careful
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No argument in favour of modern retail can ever be completed without talking about the benefits that will accrue from direct procurement of farm produce and creation of back-end infrastructure. This, experts believe, will translate into 40-odd per cent benefit to farmers and consumers. This would also result in the savings accruing from rotting of fresh products.
