We expect palm oil prices to be fairly steady: Nadir Godrej, Godrej Agrovet
“We are quite hopeful of this year. We are doing better than the previous years. Some of our businesses have been challenged like Astec LifeSciences has been challenged, but we have our new R&D centre and there is a lot of interest for the new products that will come out of our R&D centre,” says Nadir Godrej, Godrej Agrovet.
Well, just to begin with, I wanted you to put the cap of the industry doyen and talk to us about what has been the progress of rainfall, telling you at this point of time, because it looks like it is going to be below normal monsoon.. It has been very erratic. What does it mean for the prospects of sowing and your business?
So far, the monsoon has been slow both because of the El Nino and the Cyclone Biparjoy. The Cyclone Biparjoy did bring a lot of rain to the north-western parts of India, and that has filled quite a few of the reservoirs. So the reservoir levels are not all that bad and this El Nino is not very severe. And if we get good August rains, the Kharif crops will be reasonable.
And there is no reason to believe that the August rains would not be good. So although it is a late start, it is not a very bad situation. Also we are likely to have rains late in the season, as we have been in the last few years and that is going to be very good for the Rabi crops.
Okay. So you are saying that once the monsoon catches up, you are pretty much on target for that Rs 1000 crore revenue mark for FY24?
We are quite hopeful of this year. We are doing better than the previous years. Some of our businesses have been challenged like Astec LifeSciences has been challenged, but we have our new R&D centre and there is a lot of interest for the new products that will come out of our R&D centre. A lot of companies want to partner with us so that situation is good. The crop protection business will depend a little bit on how the monsoon develops. The dairy business is turning around and the poultry business is currently doing very well. And the oil palm is always a very steady business for us.
50% of your business is animal feed. Now this is a business where a lot of moving parts are there. First, what happens to raw material, then what happens to monsoon and sea, then what happens to the underlying moot point when it comes to the farmer. Connect the dots for us. 50% of your business has got a lot of moving parts, and how will that evolve?
The animal feed business is actually a very good business for us. We have done a lot of R&D and improvements in cattle feed. We also have a new breed of cattle that we have developed with Israeli technology and we think that the future in this business will be very bright. Plus, the animal feed business has links with our poultry business and our dairy business, and we plan to capitalise on those links in the future.
