Insecticides India Eyes Global Ties

The company has a technical and marketing MoU with American Vanguard Corporation (AMVAC), USA, to manufacture and market Thimet and Nuvan, agro chemical brands. It also has a tie-up with the Japanese company, Nissan Chemicals and is marketing its two products Pulsor and Hakama in India. In 2016, the company has tied-up with Momentive, USA and launched AgroSpred Max in India, which is a silicone-based super spreader that will help farmers to increase the efficacy of agrochemicals.

The company also tied up with Nihon Nohyaku, Japan for two products Suzuka and Hakko in the same year. IIL has set up a product discovery R&D centre in JV with OAT Agrio, JAPAN. It plans to invent 2-3 new agrochemical molecules in five years.

Insecticides (India) (IIL), which has established several ties with global companies in the past is keen to continue technical and R&D collaborations with Japan, US and Europe in future.

The company has already got three Japanese collaborations. Ties with Japan will continue to grow in the coming years, Rajesh Aggarwal, MD, Insecticides (India).

The company has partners in Asia, Middle East and Africa. This is leading to multiple product registrations. Domestic market though attractive, registrations take a longer time anywhere between 4 and 7 years, he observes.

The company which has clocked Rs 1,109.63 crore in 2017-2018 has set a conservative target of achieving over 10-15 per cent growth for 2018-19.
Manufacturing plans

The company has eight manufacturing facilities and five R&D centres. It carries out formulations in five units, synthesis in two units and has one biologicals unit.

“We will explore the possibility of setting up a plant in south in the near-term. But we are yet to finalise the location among Telangana, AP and Karnataka. South is a key market for us and Telangana contributes almost 30 per cent of this market. The State contributes about Rs 100 crore of business,” he added.

On the future investments, he said, “We plan to invest Rs 200 crore in manufacturing, R&D and product roll out in the next three years. Of which, around Rs 30 crore will be spent in the first year while the bulk of investment will happen in the second and third year from now. The company has been spending about Rs 10 crore on R&D every year.”

The company today occupies 5 percent in insecticide and fungicides market within India. Herbicides will go up to 30 per cent within the company’s product portfolio. Insecticides is focusing on addressing both efficacy and price issues to benefit farmers.

The company has rolled out for new products. The products- Encounter, Sofia, Aikido and Hercules have been developed at the company’s Formulations R&D centre. Hercules is an insecticide that protects all important cash crop-Cotton from sucking pest like white fly, Jassids & Thrips. The insecticide Encounter helps fight lepidopteron and sucking pest together in important crops like tea, pulses, cotton, and vegetables.

Aikido is again an insecticide, launched in technical collaboration with Nihon Nohyaku, Japan, which promises to protect crops from brown plant hoppers (BPH), white plant hoppers (WBPH) and leaf folder which destroy about 25-30 percent percent of paddy crop in the country every year. Sofia, a fungicide will ensure protection from various diseases in different crops for farmers in the country, especially useful for crops of paddy, grapes, chilly, mango, cucumber, rose, tomato, peas and cumin. It gives broad spectrum control against diseases in crops.

These four products could generate sales of Rs 100 crore. At least 3 million acres across the country will use our products. The company has strong foothold in north, west and south. Markets such as Odisha, Bengal and Assam are also picking up, he said.

Aggarwal informed, “This year, we are planning to launch 7-8 products. The new launches will help us achieve 10 percent growth. We have a two-pronged strategy. We will be promoting the products that we have launched in the last 3-4 years. We will cut all trailing products from our portfolio. We have four R&D schemes.”

Every R&D centre is expected to produce at least one product and the Japanese partnership will also give the company some more new products. The company has in total 125 products across insecticides, fungicides and pesticides. India is a major insecticide market, being a tropical nation. Herbicides which used to account for 20 percent earlier is going to contribute about 30 percent.