Makhteshim's India plant to serve Asian markets

Israel-based agro-chemical firm Makhteshim Agan said its newly set up formulation plant at Dahej will cater to other Asian countries besides India.

"We have established a state-of-the-art formulation plant (at Dahej) for enabling production of high quality products and to provide the best services to the Indian farmers," Makhteshim Agan India President and CEO Yossi Goldshmidt told PTI.

"Our mission is to provide the Indian farmers with the best service and solutions for entire plant protection problems for all crops," he said.

The new plant of Makhteshim Agan, an agrochemicals manufacturer and distributor of crop protection products and solutions around the world, was inaugurated yesterday.

The facility in Bharuch district, set up by the Israeli firm's Indian arm, is staffed completely with local people, Makhteshim Agan Group President and Chief Executive Officer Erez Vigodman.

We have invested Rs 500 crore for setting up the plant in Dahej and a global R&D centre in Hyderabad in the last two years," he said. The plant is an Export Oriented Unit.

Makhteshim Group's product portfolio includes a full range of herbicides, insecticides and fungicides for virtually every conventional crop and also in non-crop category.

The Indian plant will also help us to export our 70 products to Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia, Vigodman said.

The unit will help us increase our market share in India from the present 7 per cent, he said.