IFFCO-MC rolled out 18 agrochemicals

The Indian agrochemicals firm IFFCO-MC, a newly-formed joint venture (JV) between fertiliser major IFFCO and Japanese firm Mitsubishi Corp, on Wednesday rolled out 18 products with an aim to achieve Rs130 crore turnover by March 2017.

Last month, fertiliser cooperative IFFCO had announced the JV with Japanese firm Mitsubishi Corp to manufacture agrochemicals in India that will start operation in this rabi season starting October. IFFCO holds 51% stake and the remaining 49% is held by Mitsubishi in the JV, IFFCO-MC Crop Science Private.

As per the agreement, IFFCO will source agrochemicals from the Japanese firm and the products will be sold through its member cooperatives across India. “What we are trying is that quality of these agrochemical products should be such that farmers should have same trust as they have for our fertiliser products. And I hope by the end of next financial year, our sale would be around Rs130 crore,” IFFCO Managing Director U S Awasthi said at the launch of the first range of agrochemical products.

The 18 products that were launched on Wednesday include pesticides, herbicides and fungicides. “We have forayed into agrochemical business with only one aim to keep farmers first. Besides selling agrochemicals, our focus is to provide a whole lot of services like how much and when we should use these agrochemicals,” Awasthi told reporters.

The fertiliser cooperative has plans to make these products initially available in 10 states, which include Haryana, Punjab and Gujarat, among others. By the end of the next financial year, Awasthi said, the fertiliser cooperative is trying to make these products available at its 25,000 cooperatives across India.

IFFCO, which has a strong presence in the fertiliser market in the country, and Mitsubishi Corporation, which has expertise in agrochemical business internationally, are going to have synergy to make available quality agrochemicals at reasonable price to Indian farmers even in far-flung areas, the cooperative said.

IFFCO is India’s largest fertiliser firm with annual urea capacity of 4.2 million tonnes and 4.6 tonnes of complex fertilisers (NPK).