An Appetite For Growth

An Appetite For Growth

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KRBL Ltd (KRBL), which was established in 1889, is India’s first integrated rice company with a comprehensive product chain. The company is engaged in seed development, contact farming, procurement of paddy, storage, processing, packaging, branding and marketing of Basmati rice. The company is India’s first fully-integrated and scalable rice company having two rice processing plants with manufacturing capacity of 195 MT/hr.

The company's operating segments include agri, which includes agricultural commodities, such as rice, Furfural, seed, bran and bran oil, among others, and energy, which includes power generation from wind turbine, husk-based power plant and solar power plant.

Domestically, its products are available pan-India and it exports to 75 countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, Kuwait and Qatar. The contribution of international business increased from 35 percent in FY17 to 40 percent in FY18, whereas the domestic contribution came down from 65 percent in FY17 to 60 percent in FY18. Its flagship brand, India Gate is recognised both in India and abroad with strong presence and impressive market share. It also owns other brands such as Taj Mahal, Doon, Nur Jahan.

Basmati Rice Industry

As per ICRA estimates, Indian Basmati rice exports are expected to post strong growth in FY18 and FY19 on the back of improved demand in the international market and transference of higher paddy prices over the last two procurement seasons.

Indian basmati rice exports have witnessed strong revival in FY18 with 22 percent growth in value in 9M FY18 over the previous fiscal, after having been on the downward trajectory over FY15 to FY17. The momentum is likely to fuel the industry growth in FY19 as well. The concern, however, is that the export volumes have largely remained stagnant in line with the last few years.