RAMDEV SETS SIGHTS ON CHINA, B’DESH, MYANMAR
After giving multinational consumer products makers a run for their money in India, yoga guru Baba Ramdev is taking the fight to overseas markets.
Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Ltd is looking to set up a production unit in Sahibganj, a district in Jharkhand that the central government plans to turn into a multi-modal hub with direct connectivity through roads, waterways and air with neighbouring countries.
The company, which sells everything from shampoo and toothpaste to biscuits and noodles, and rice and wheat to honey and ghee, is in talks with both the central and Jharkhand governments to pursue its ambition.
“Patanjali is in talks with the Inland Waterways Authority of India and shipping minister Nitin Gadkari to use the Sahibganj multi-modal terminal for export of its products to East Asian countries like China, Myanmar, Bangladesh and others. By using the inland waterways, the company will save on its logistic costs for exports and the idea is to capture the East Asian market by competing on price and quality,” said a senior central government official on condition of anonymity.
The planned overseas expansion is in line with the government’s Act East policy, which emphasises ties with India’s immediate neighbourhood, AsiaPacific countries including those grouped in the Association of South-East Nations (Asean), and China, Japan, South Korea and Australia. Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Sahibanj “is a strategic location,” a spokesperson for Patanjali Ayurved said. “We are in discussion with the Jharkhand government for the industrial development of the state.” Sahibganj, the only district in Jharkhand where the Ganga flows, will give Patanjali direct access to Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The Sahibganj multi-modal terminal planned under the Ganga Jal Marg Vikas Project will have a handling capacity of 2.28 million tonnes per annum and the first phase of construction is likely to be completed by 2019. Sahibganj is already attracting interest from industries such as cement, coal and thermal power and packaged consumer goods retailers like Big Bazaar.
To be sure, Patanjali has been exporting products to the UK, US, Canada and Mauritius, which are home to large Indian-origin populations, for the past couple of years, but in limited quantities.
According to the Patanjali spokesperson, the company has, in the recent past, received offers from countries like the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Azerbaijan to retail its products in those markets but it hasn’t done so.
China has been on Ramdev’s radar for a long time. He has repeatedly said on public forums that India could improve its ties with China through yoga – through which Ramdev has built a following of millions in India.
Sahibganj is not new territory for Patanjali. The company already has two centres in Sahibganj for distribution and retailing of its herbal medicines and packaged goods products, according to the Patanjali spokesperson.
Besides the proposed factory at Sahibganj, Patanjali has started work to set up a production unit in Assam that would cater to the north-east and eastern parts of India and neighbouring countries such as Bhutan. Patanjali already has a production partner in Nepal and sources herbs from Nepal for its Indian factories.
Patanjali, which claimed to have earned ₹5,000 crore of revenue in 2015-16 and said it hopes to double that in the current ffiscal, has a factory in Haridwar (Uttarakhand), and has started work to set up plants in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir.
In April 2016, Acharya Balkrishna, Ramdev’s close confidant and MD of Patanjali Ayurved, said the company will spend over ₹1,000 crore to set up new production units and ₹150 crore on a research and development unit.