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Mahyco to introduce hybrid cottonseed to African farmers

Indian seed companies such as Advanta, Bioseed and Mahyco, besides others are beginning to make inroads into overseas markets such as the South-East Asia and Africa among other geographies.

From exporting hybrids, more players are seen investing in research and development overseas, while the early movers are strengthening their outfits.

Mahyco, the latest Indian entity to go abroad, recently gained access to the South African market through the acquisition of 60 per cent stake in the Zimbabwe-based Quton Seed Company Pvt Ltd, the largest cottonseed vendor in Africa.

Quton has presence in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Tanzania. Through this acquisition, Mahyco is looking at delivering improved genetics and other technologies to the African farmers.

“We would like to expand overseas,” said AR Subbarao, Strategic Business Head at Mahyco, adding that the company was exploring markets in Bangladesh among other geographies.

Interestingly, the Bt brinjal that is currently being commercialised in Bangladesh has been developed by Mahyco at its R&D facility in Jalna.

Rice hybrids

Mahyco is already selling its rice hybrids in Vietnam and has some exposure in Sri Lanka. “As we expand, we would also be considering setting up R&D units to localise the products,” Subbarao added.

Bioseed, the hybrid-seed business of DCM Shriram Ltd, has been operating in South-East Asian countries such as Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia for several years now and sees a big potential in these markets.

“It is a long haul business as the climate is quite complex in these countries. We are starting to make inroads in these markets,” said Vikram Shriram, Vice-Chairman & Managing Director, DCM Shriram Ltd.

Global seed majors such as Pioneer, Monsanto and Syngenta, among others, dominate the South-East Asian seed markets.

Bioseed has commercialised the genetically modified corn, developed using Monsanto technology, in Philippines.

The company has also been conducting advanced stage trials in Vietnam and Indonesia. The company has been operating R&D centres in Philippines and Vietnam for developing the products to suit the local climatic conditions.

The overseas seed business accounts for about 20 per cent of Bioseed’s revenues, which stood at ₹458 crore in the year-ended March 2014.

Advanta Ltd, part of the United Phosphorous Ltd, has operations across all continents and sells its seeds in about 25 countries including Brazil, Argentina, Thailand and Australia.

Vegetable seeds

Salem-based Rasi Seeds, which has forayed into vegetable seeds segments in recent years, had begun exporting vegetable seeds to about 10 countries.

After test marketing in countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Burma, Indonesia, West Asia and Africa over the past two years, the company is looking at building volumes in these markets, said Arvind Kapur, Managing Director of HyVeg, Rasi’s vegetable seed business.

Kapur said there exists a huge market potential in these geographies and the acceptance of vegetable seeds is pretty high.