Insecticides India plans to launch 3 new products before Diwali

Agro-chemicals maker Insecticides India Ltd (IIL) is planning to launch three new products before Diwali as the company gets back to normalcy gradually after the easing of COVID-19-related restrictions, its Managing Director Rajesh Aggarwal said. 

The company has lined up 10 new products, both technicals and formulations, for the launch in the rabi cropping season of this year and is awaiting their registration approval, he said. Aggarwal said already Rs 150 crore investment has been set aside for the capacity expansion in Rajasthan and Gujarat where the work is in full swing. 

"We believe in bringing innovative products for farmers. We are planning to launch around 10 new products in the rabi season. Of which, three products will be launched before Diwali," Aggarwal said in an interview. One is insecticide in granular form, a speciality Japanese product, for controlling the attack of stem borer and leaf folder mainly in paddy crop, he said, adding that this product will be launched during Navratri festival. The second one is the new age post-emergence herbicide for the control of grass weed species in wheat crops, while the third one is a biological product for improving soil health, he said. 

"The three products will be formulations. However, the technical grade of the Japanese product will be sourced from Japan, while production of the other two products in the technical grade will start from next year." He said the expansion of production capacity of both units in Rajasthan and Gujarat as well as Phase-II construction of Special Economic Zone (SEZ) is underway, for which Rs 150 crore will be invested. 

"We budgeted Rs 150 crore for three years. Almost Rs 40 crore was spent last year, will spend Rs 50-odd crore this year and the rest next year. This investment is done on expansion at three places," he added. On the fund raising plans to support expansion, Aggarwal said the company is meeting the fund requirement from its internal accruals and is not keen to take loans because it wants to keep fully debt free this year. 

Further, he shared that the company was focusing on both backward integration as well as making new technical grade chemicals and formulations for the new season. On the company's quarterly performance, Aggarwal said there were roadblocks in the first quarter due to lockdown restrictions imposed to contain COVID-19 spread. "Q2 results are yet to come. But we see little improvement in Q2 vis-a-vis Q1 in terms of productivity which has improved to 80-90 per cent. That advantage is there. Overall, we have tried to perform best possible in these given circumstances," he added. 

On the Pesticides Management Bill 2020, Aggarwal said the government should "relook" as the provisions are against the interest of the industry. "We had a lot of expectations that the government would bring a lot of reforms but they did not do it. ....There are many laws which are not as stringent as proposed in the pesticides management bill. The industry has raised objections that it should be relooked," he said. 

IIL has six formulation units in Chopanki (Rajasthan), Samba and Udhampur (Jammu & Kashmir), Dahej (Gujarat). It also has technical synthesis plants at Chopanki and Dahej to make technical grade chemicals.