Insecticides India to hike product prices by 5%

Insecticides India plans to invest Rs 130 crore in the next two fiscals to enhance the formulation capacity at its plants in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jammu and Kashmir.

Rajesh Aggarwal, Managing Director, Insecticides India, said the company would invest Rs 30 crore this fiscal in two projects in Gujarat and Rajasthan, while taking up technical capacity expansion at Dahej with Rs 100 crore investment next fiscal.

"We have already tied up Rs 30 crore through internal accruals and may consider equity dilution next fiscal for the Rs 100-crore project,” he added.

Insecticides India has the capacity to produce 10,000 tonnes of technical grade insecticide at Dahej.

"We will increase Dahej capacity by 5,000 to 8,000 tonnes once the capacity utilisation reaches 90 per cent from 60 per cent,” said Aggarwal.

RAISING CAPACITY

The company expects its pesticide formulation (granules) capacity to go up by 8,000 tonnes with the expansion at Rajasthan going on stream this quarter.

Overall, formulation capacity will go up by 30 per cent to 30,000 tonnes, he said.

With rising input and operation cost, the company has already implemented a price hike of five per cent across its products and expects to raise prices by another five per cent at the start of the kharif season.

Last year, delay in the onset of the monsoon and drought in about 16 districts of Maharashtra had hit agriculture output drastically. This led to a sharp increase in farm product prices.

However, the Indian Meteorological Department has forecast a normal south-west monsoon this year.

"Though there was delay in the rainfall in a few States, overall farmers have managed to get better price for their produce. We expect demand for all our products to improve,” he said.

SPURT IN DEMAND

The demand for herbicides (a weed killer, often a synthetic imitation of plant hormones) has seen a spurt in the last few seasons with the cost of manpower increasing manifold. Globally, farmers use 60 per cent herbicide, while it is 30 per cent in India.

Over the years, Insecticides India has developed a vast portfolio of agrochemical products, with over 92 formulations of pesticides, insecticides and herbicides. It has also undertaken backward integration to manufacture technicals.