Quality, Innovation and Expansion: Agrow Allied Ventures' Formula for Leadership in Crop Protection

Agrow Allied Ventures (AAVPL) has emerged as one of India's top agrochemical companies, experiencing rapid growth through a focus on quality manufacturing, global expansion, and product innovation. In this exclusive interview Rakshit Sehgal, Managing Director at AAVPL, outlines the company's strategies and investments fueling its ascent as well as their plans to capitalize on upcoming opportunities. 

Mr. Rakshit Sehgal attributes AAVPL's success to its commitment to producing highquality technical products, enabling it to compete globally. The company has also established a strong global footprint across 70+ countries, with 50% of its revenue coming from exports. He explained how AAVPL is strategically registering hundreds of products across the world to drive further international growth. 

Looking ahead, Mr. Rakshit Sehgal discussed how AAVPL is positioning itself to launch new de-patented products, including plans for a new technical manufacturing plant. He also provides insights into how the company is innovating and expanding its portfolio to serve the evolving needs of Indian farmers. With major investments in local manufacturing and registrations worldwide, AAVPL aims to establish itself as a leading innovator and supplier of crop protection solutions globally.

Agrow Allied Ventures (AAVPL) has grown rapidly to become one of India's leading agrochemical companies. To what do you attribute this success? What has been integral to your strategy? 

AAVPL is proud to be one of the best performing companies in the agrochemical industry. The reason for our success is because of 3 major reasons. 

a) Quality Technical Manufacturing: AAVPL from day one was focused to produce quality technical products competing China and placing them on global map. Quality Technical manufacturing was limited in India, and this is where we saw an opportunity and capitalize the same. As on today our company is manufacturing more than 15 technical products which includes Herbicides, Insecticides and Fungicides with capacity of over 25000 mts per annum. Along with strong presence in generic products portfolio our company has added specialty new DE patented products which resulted in healthy topline and bottom line for the company. 

b) Global Presence: The company also takes pride in its exports division that sells a huge portfolio of agrochemical products and solutions to customers across 80+ countries, which contributes to a whopping 50% of its overall revenue. The Company has vast global presence and has set up the regional offices and Subsidiaries globally viz., Colombia, Tanzania, Ecuador, Myanmar and UAE. 

c) Global and Domestic Registration: Our company has invested heavily in registration to support our export and domestic market business. Our company has invested in GLP data for many active and formulation products. Currently our company holds more than 500 registrations globally and many in pipeline which will add to growth. For India market, we have applied for many 9(3) TI /TIM registrations as well. We have more than 50 technical and 350 formulation registrations in India and many more are in pipeline which are expected to come soon. 

AAVPL recently began manufacturing chlorantraniliprole and received EU registration. How does this fit into your portfolio expansion plans? 

AAVPL is focused on investing in new DE patented products and CTPR is one of such achievements for the company. We have planned to register CTPR globally and have already invested heavily in registration and technical manufacturing for the molecule.

Our company expects min 150 Cr. business in the next 2 years from CTPR tech and CTPR combination products. We are also in discussion with many strong player in EU and other global markets to support them for this product. 

With your strong generic crop protection portfolio, how are you positioning AAVPL to capitalize on upcoming patent expirations? What are your growth plans?

AAVPL constantly breathes the core vision of outclassing as one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of crop protection agrochemicals. AAVPL is offering a gamut of product and as mentioned our company has a strong generic portfolio which include products:

The new products are a result of our committed investment in R&D. Our team is working hard so our company can launch specialty products as soon as possible. We are planning to place these products not only for India but on global markets competing with China. 

Moreover, Company is already in process for setting up new technical manufacturing plant with a capacity of additional 15,000 MT per annum to manufacture upcoming products. The plant is expected to be operative in mid of 2024. 

You have over 500 product registrations in the pipeline globally. What types of new chemicals or product innovations can we expect to see launched in the coming years? 

Registration is the backbone of our company, and our company continues to invest in registering products globally. Our regulatory team takes utmost responsibility of handling 500+ global registrations across the globe. Registration of products is a very long and expensive process to which our company is committed. 

We are looking to register our technical manufactured products along with many new formulations and combination products. We are also filing many active process and novel formulation combination patents. Our idea is to serve farmers with best quality and economical viable molecules to increase their yield. With more than 500 products in process for registration in markets viz., North and South America, Europe, Africa, South Asia and Middle East Countries, which will help our company to grow exponentially. 

What emerging farmer needs and crop protection technology trends are you seeing in India? How is AAVPL innovating its portfolio to address these needs? 

There has been a significant shift from generic to specialty molecules as they will be accessible to farmers at much cheaper prices in comparison to multinationals which are today at least 3-5X higher in prices. With launch of new de-patent molecules will allow us to take these products to farmers at much lower cost. Also, farmers are looking for new innovative formulations and combination products for which our formulation and R&D team is continuously working on. We are working at field level to evaluate the challenges faced by farmers and try to help them with the best possible solutions.

You just opened a new formulation plant in Rajasthan. How does this investment expand your capabilities? What role will it play in your growth strategy? 

Our new formulation plant is installed with a capacity of 60000 MT / Annum. The plant is installed to manufacture products for our export market. We are specialized in manufacturing all kinds of formulations which include liquids formulations (EC/SL/SC/SE/CS/OD/ZC), powder formulations (WP/WS/DF) and granule formulations (WGD/ WG/SG/GR). Our company also manufactures many new combination products as per the requirements of farmers in different countries. We understand the problem faced by farmers and try to develop the best possible combination products to help them fight pests. Today, every market has different needs, and we try to meet the requirements of our farmers throughout the world. We support new combination with registrations as well which required continuous investments. 

AAVPL exports to 70+ countries. How are you working with regulators globally to expand access for your products? 

We are working closely with top renowned companies and regulatory bodies to register our products in many countries. With the help of the development of new specialty molecules and registration support we give access to our partners in various countries so they can take these products at farmer level. Our partners have shown continuous trust with us. Today we ensure that we are a strong supply chain partner for our customers and they can collaborate with us with utmost trust and confidence. 

How has the ″Make in India″ initiative benefited AAVPL? How are you utilizing local manufacturing and talent? 

With Make in India initiative by our honorable prime minister we witness huge opportunities to become a strong manufacturing hub of agrochemical products. There is a lot of expansion and backward integration happening in the country, so that we become less dependent on China. This is where we are investing heavily, and we are trying to locally manufacture products and replace them with imports by investing in backward integration. Also, many global Companies are looking for reliable supply partners alternate to China which gives our Company a great opportunity. 

This article was initially published in AgroPages' '2023 India Focus' magazine.

If you would like to share your company's story. Please contact Christina Xie at christina@agropages.com