Sungro’s core philosophy is to constantly work for the betterment of the farmers and farming community

Sungro Seeds Limited, established in the year 1973 is a pioneer in the vegetable seed industry. Its philosophy is “Bringing Seeds of Prosperity” to farmers.

The company has been serving the farming community since four decades by providing them the best quality seeds developed with the help of the latest technologies & innovations in Research, Production, Processing, Quality Assurance and Marketing. At present, Sungro is a proud owner of 80 hybrids and 20 superior open pollinated vegetable seed varieties. The company produces as well as markets its vegetable seeds both in domestic and international markets. It is one of the leading companies in marketing Hybrid Brinjal, Cauliflower, Cabbage and Cucurbits seeds in India.

Mr. Sandeep Harsh, CEO Sungro Seeds Limited and Business Head with Mahyco Seeds Limited has a rich and diverse professional experience across industries and functions. His foresight and business acumen has propelled Sungro to be one of the fast growing and innovative and technology driven seed company in India. Recently, Krishi Jagran team interacted with him and discussed about the company’s key offerings and performance. Read the excerpts from the interaction…

1. What are the key focus areas of Sungro in India?

We are one of the leading Vegetable seed company in India. Sungro offers high quality vegetable seeds suitable for various agro climatic zones in India and across the globe.

The key objective is to create value for all our stake holders, especially to the farmers by offering them superior quality seeds and personalized technical services for their overall betterment & prosperity.

2. What kind of solutions does Sungro offer to Indian farmers? What feedback do you receive from them?

Sungro provides the best quality seeds produced through rigorous quality assurance system, thus suiting the requirement of farmers in different agro climatic regions. These seeds are produced to meet the farmer’s expectations in terms of yield and quality. We also ensure comprehensive solutions to farmers by giving constant technical inputs on the best cultivation practices & recommendations for healthy crop so as to obtain high yields and higher returns. Our marketing philosophy is “When famer succeeds in getting higher yield and income, we are successful”.

Sungro's well spread presence of the highly experienced Sales, Production, R&D, QA, FA team along with committed business partners across India enables us to give a personal touch to our relationship with the farmers by working closely with them. A two way process of the constant feedback is ensured by regular visits, meeting with them, thus sharing the latest agri practices, product knowledge, and services for overall development of the farmers and the entire farming community. We believe in creating a strong and long-term relationship with our customers.

3.Who are major competitors of Sungro?

There are several organized players - both MNCs and Indian companies competing well for the share of the market. All such organized players in vegetable seeds are our competitors, be it Indian companies or MNC's.

4. What is your analysis of company's sales in this financial year?

Though there is no structured Industry data available, based on our internal analysis, the average growth rate of organized Vegetable seed industry in India is 12% and Sungro has been consistently growing at a rate of 17% over the years including the last fiscal. Thus, we have been able to increase our market share continuously.

5. How do you convince farmers to use your products?

Delivering consistent value to the farmers by offering superior products and services is the key. Sungro's strong philosophy is “Farmer must be benefitted each time”. That's why, Sungro today is synonymous with trust, and one of the most preferred brands amongst the farmers. We constantly communicate with farmers on the superior attributes of our products using various methods of interactions viz. Crop shows, Field days, Farmers Meeting, Business Partners Meetings, Campaigns, Participation in Krishi Melas, Exhibitions, Forming crop club of the farmers of the area etc.

6. How does sungro work on bridging the gap between farmers and farm practices?

Communicating with farmers is a part of our regular work. Farmer training programmes, imparting training through workshops in villages, educating them to adopt scientific cropping practices are the way of Sungro's regular working.

Sungro has taken many new initiatives in the interest of the farmers, and the latest among them is selling “Seeds by count” which further enhances the quality standard of the product with better yield. This also helps to improve the commercial quotient of farming by enhancing farmers awareness about value of each unit of seed.

7. What about new R&D plan of your company?

As you may be aware we are part of the Mahyco Group, and have joint R&D - breeding programmes. Mahyco, as you may know is one of the most reputed and oldest hybrid seeds company to introduce many hybrids for the first time in India. As a group, we believe in innovation and technology through seeds to provide solutions to farming challenges and thus, we are a highly research focused group.

We have the world class R&D facility and highly capable breeding team, which has been consistently giving excellent products to the market. We have a strong pipeline of new products in various crops.We have made a sizeable investment in our R&D capabilities. We strongly believe that our research based approach will help to constantly work on newer products & services for the benefit of farmers.

8.Tell me about company’s future plan?

We would like to be the market leader in certain category of vegetable seeds in India. We are focused on selected vegetables for research and innovation such as Okra, Brinal, Chilli and Cauliflower. We would continue to work on bringing new technologies for the benefit of farmers in these categories of vegetables. We would also like to expand our global presence by going aggressively in certain new geographies.