1 Crore is 10 million. 1 USD – ~~ 44 Indian Rupees. You do the math. If you’re in the business of feeding India, you don’t know what “global recession” people are talking about.
The Hindu Business Line
Import of food grains jumped 3100 per cent to Rs 111.7 crore in April-July 2010 from just Rs 3.5 crore last year. This is mainly due to import of wheat by flour millers in south India.
Import of milk and milk products in the period under review was Rs 370.4 crore, a 324.5 per cent increase from only Rs 87.3 crore in the same period last year. In March, the Government had allowed duty-free imports of up to 15,000 tonnes of butter oil and 30,000 tonnes of milk powder, anticipating shortfalls in milk supplies to cities ahead of the summer season.
Edible oil import grew 18.9 per cent to Rs 8,763.7 crore during April-July this fiscal from Rs 7,371 crore last year. A significant feature of edible oil import is that import of crude oil has gone up by 25.9 per cent to Rs 7,958.6 crore (Rs 6,319.8 crore), while imports of refined oil have fallen by 23.4 per cent to Rs 805.1 crore (Rs 1,051.3 crore). The increase in edible oil import is mainly due to substantial increase in import of soya-bean crude oil, the statement said.
Among those other sensitive items whose import growth has increased during the period under reference include fruits and vegetables including nuts (up 10.8 per cent to Rs 2,178.3 crore), spices (11.9 per cent to Rs 302.7 crore), alcoholic beverages (85.2 per cent to Rs 147.4 crore).
Food inflation in India for the week ended September 25 was 16.24 per cent, mainly because of soaring prices of milk, fruits and vegetables.
Technorati Tags: india, consumption trends
Popularity: 8% [?]
Citizens in a a huge arc of countries ranging from West Africa – Angola, Nigeria to North Africa – Egypt to the Middle East – Iran and the Indian subcontinent, and China will suffer the most during the next food crisis. As I’ve spoken before, food exporting countries in Latin America, specifically in the Mercosur – Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay should profit from this. Still waiting for an Indian company to capitalize on this scenario that will most likely unfold in the near future.
One of the observations that goaded me on the path to promote Agriculture Outsourcing in Latin America, was the fact that many cooks, drivers, maids, cleaning ladies in urban South India suffer from diabetes, and are proud of it – a stark difference from a couple of decades ago. This Nomura paper speaks to that demographic in a section titled “the <$3000 sweet spot” -
“Unlike other commodities, the sensitivity of the demand for food to an increase in income is much greater for low-income earners. In economists’ parlance, the highest income elasticity of the demand for food is in the low-income bracket. For example, in low-income countries (defined by the World Bank as those with an average Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of below USD1,000), demand for grains rises quickly as income increases – a 10% increase in incomes is associated with a 6% increase in demand for grain
via Business Insider and Nomura Research
India:
GDP per capita in USD: $1,017
Food as a percentage of total household consumption: 49.5%
Net food exports (as percentage of GDP): 0.3%
From the executive summary of Nomura Research paper:
The surge in commodity prices in 2003-08 was the largest, longest and most broad-based of any commodity boom since 1900. The prices of energy and metals surged the most, but it was the agricultural market that saw the most fundamental change. It may not take much of a disruption in food supply to trigger another surge in prices given that the dynamics have become a whole lot more uncertain as a result of new and some increasingly powerful influences acting on both sides of the food supply-demand equation. Indeed, droughts this year in Russia and Kazakhstan and severe flooding in Pakistan and China have sent global wheat prices higher, while meat and sugar prices have hit 20-year highs, despite lacklustre growth in many of the advanced economies.
We expect another multi-year food price rise, partly because of burgeoning demand from the world’s rapidly developing – and most populated – economies, where diets are changing towards a higher calorie intake. We believe that most models significantly underestimate future food demand as they fail to take into account the wide income inequality in developing economies. The supply side of the food equation is being constrained by diminishing agricultural productivity gains and competing use of available land due to rising trends of urbanization and industrialization, while supply has also become more uncertain due to greater use of biofuels, global warming and increasing water scarcity.
The fall in agricultural prices from their H1 2008 highs was caused more by the global recession and the tumble of oil prices than by an expansion in food availability. In most developing countries, despite burgeoning demand, supply did not respond significantly to high food prices (FAO, 2009a, p.4). It may not take much of a disruption in food supply to trigger another surge in prices given that the dynamics have become a lot more uncertain as a result of new influences acting on both sides of the food supply-demand equation. Furthermore, based on the historical pattern of the Southern Oscillation Index, the world is due for another severe El Niño event, which will likely cause big global weather disruptions.
Nomura Global Economics Strategy Sep2010
Technorati Tags: food crisis, india
Popularity: 4% [?]
Here at IndusLatin we recently highlighted the growing role of cities like Mumbai, India, and São Paulo, Brazil, as international financial centers. The NY Times has just drew attention to a few recent developments in Brazil that indicate that this trend is unlikely to stop any time soon. Here are some key facts from the article:
- A Brazilian-backed investment firm just acquired Burger King, further securing Brazil’s place as an ascendent global commercial leader
- The number of millionaires in Brazil jumped nearly 70 percent, to 220,000, from 130,000, between 2006 and 2008
- JBS Friboi, a Brazilian company, butchers and packages 8 percent of the world’s beef
The article further emphasizes that Brazil is an increasingly dominant world player in the food and agriculture industries, and with growing fears over the world’s food supply, Brazilian agriculture is looking like a solid investment.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Huh?! It seems every country’s official inflation statistics are suspect. The man on the street has a true sense of it while officials at government agencies are churning out computer-generated information divorced from reality.
Economy and Politics – livemint.com
Year-on-year, the prices of cereals went up more than 12.2%, pulses 16.7%, and fruit and vegetables 10.5%. At the same time, the prices of milk have gone up nearly 4.8% over last year, while spices were more expensive, by about 6.2%.
Among manufactured food products, sugar, khandsari and gur went up about 34.3% while processed fish turned dearer by more than 42.7% over the last year.
During the week, fish marine was dearer by 10%, arhar and fruit and vegetables by two per cent each, and urad and moong rose by 1% each. Also butter and imported edible oil turned dearer by 1% each.
Technorati Tags: india, food inflation, trends
Popularity: 18% [?]
India Knowledge@Wharton
While consumers across the world are seeing a growing number of “Made in India” labels on the goods they buy, Indian shoppers are witnessing a more subtle change. Increasingly, multinational companies are selling products that are not just made in — but that are made for — India.
Nowhere is that more apparent than in food preferences and habits. Across most of the world, Nestlé’s Maggi is known best as a soups-and-sauces brand. In India, it has become the generic word for instant noodles. The product sold in India, though, bears little resemblance to the ramen of East Asia. It was introduced in 1982 with a masala (spicy) flavoring and, over the next 25 years, Nestlé continued to launch variants that would appeal to local and regional tastes.
McDonald’s took note of that as far back as 1990, when it began establishing local supplier partners, six years before it opened its first restaurant in India. Working on its first no-beef, no-pork menu, the company ensured that suppliers respected the beliefs of its future customers. Vegetarian products are prepared with dedicated equipment and utensils and, in some cases, by a separate workforce. All food is cooked in vegetable oil, and the mayonnaise and other sauces do not contain egg (considered a non-vegetarian food).
Within three years of its 1996 launch, Pizza Hut opened its first vegetarian restaurant in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, a state with a large Jain population. Not only did the outlet serve no meat, it also offered a selection of Jain toppings. (The Jain religion proscribes all meat and root vegetables, including ginger, garlic, onion and potato). There are now three all-vegetarian restaurants in India, the only such Pizza Hut outlets in the world.
Technorati Tags: india, food culture, localization
Popularity: 7% [?]
SF Chronicle
Chef Gastón Acurio has a vision, and it permeates everything you see on the plate and in the decor at La Mar Cebicheria Peruana, the Peruvian restaurant that opened in September on Pier 1 1/2. The building frames calming views of San Francisco Bay on one side and skyscrapers on the other.
Acurio has become an international celebrity chef with restaurants all over the globe, but this is his first in the United States. His vision, according to the restaurant’s Web site, is “to take the new concept of Peruvian cebicheria to the world.”
The building blocks of [Peruvian] cuisine, and the ingredients that show up repeatedly in both the traditional and contemporary dishes, are the chiles, particularly aji amarillo and rocoto; along with huacatay (often called black mint); and choclo, a big, starchy corn that resembles fattened hominy and is used in most ceviches and rice dishes. Many of these flavors also appear in the three sauces waiters put on the table when diners are seated.
Peru’s version of sashimi is tiraditos, but the raw slices of fish in such items as the kona kampachi ($15) are so heavily covered with aji amarillo, habanero and ginger sauce that the fish becomes almost a prop for textural contrast.
Peruvian food not only has Japanese influences but also incorporates flavors from Spain, Africa and China, which show up in iconic dishes like lomo saltado ($25), chunks of tender beef wok-seared with tomatoes, red onions and soy sauce, then topped with french fries.
Technorati Tags: peruvian food, cuisine, ceviche
Popularity: 19% [?]
Selling Mexican food in India is a no-brainer. Last year, in Bangalore, I bought taco shells and stuffing imported from Sweden! Grupo Bimbo, where are you?
Mexican operators like Taco Inn, Coco Express, El Fogoncito and El Tizoncito should follow Taco Bell’s foodsteps. It is still early days.
Yum Brands Bets on Taco Bell To Win Over Customers Overseas – WSJ.com
To expand Taco Bell, which has been the company’s most profitable U.S. brand, Yum plans to put the chain in Spain by the beginning of next year and in India by April. Right now, there are about 240 Taco Bells in 10 countries outside the U.S., with the majority in Canada and Puerto Rico.
The challenge will be going to countries where Mexican food isn’t popular and persuading customers to try the Americanized version sold at Taco Bell (!!!). Mr. Novak says the lack of authenticity in the chain’s Mexican cuisine is an advantage. “It owns its own category,” he says.
Other American food companies are trying to export Mexican food to other countries. General Mills Inc. sells its Old El Paso brand in about 20 countries.
Technorati Tags: mexican food
Popularity: 19% [?]
Business Standard
Bharti Wal-Mart, grocery and retail chain operator, will be going ahead with its plans to launch its cash and carry stores despite the current market instability, said Raj Jain, managing director and chief executive officer, Bharti Wal-Mart here today.
The company was fully committed to its long-term investments in India, he added. Bharti Wal-Mart is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and US retail giant Wal-Mart.
The joint venture, which is for wholesale cash-and-carry and back-end supply chain management operations in India, is scheduled to open its first store in Punjab in the first quarter of the next financial year.
A conventional cash and carry store will occupy 50,000 to 100,000 sq.feet and sell a wide range of fruits and vegetables, groceries, footwear, clothing and other general merchandise. The joint venture would open 15 stores in the next seven years and employ 5,000 people over the same period as according to plan.
Technorati Tags: retail, supply chain
Popularity: 15% [?]
