FOOD : A thriving industry wtill with a large untapped potential

• Indian food industry is worth over USD 400 billion.
• Second largest producer of fruits and vegetables - but only 2% processed.
• Largest livestcok population but only 1% of meat production is converted to value added products.
• Largest milk producer with about 15% of milk production processed in the organised sector.
• Over 8000 km of coastline makes it potentially, one of the largest seafood producing and processing countries.
• Around 30% of the world's trade in spices originates in India.
• Large plantations of tea, coffee, cocoa,and cashew.A rapidly growing bakery, soft drinks, confectionery and beer & alcoholic drinks market.
• Size of the semi-processed and ready-to-eat packaged food industry is over USD 1 billion and growing at over 20% p.a.
• Lifting of Quantitative Restrictions in accordance with the WTO regulations from April 2001 means freer import and export.

PHARMACEUTICAL : Opportunities for growth in the post WTO regime

• Value : USD 5 billion.
  Average grwoth rate : 8-10 %.
  Share of global sales : Value 1%, Volume 8%.
  Global ranking : 4th in volume, 13th in value.
  Imports : USD 800 million.
  Exports : USD 2 billion.
  Production costs : Lowest in the world. 40-50% compared to developed countreies.
• A fragmented industry with over 20,000 registered units looking at consoldation.
• Top 250 companies control 70% of the market and top ten companies cover over 30% of the market.
• An industry that possesses excellent chemistry and process reengineering skills.
• Per capita expenditure on health care in India is USD 93 where penetration of modern medicine is less than 30% making it a huge untapped market
• A growing affluent class has opened up the market for lifestyle drugs, virtually untapped so far.
• Indian Pharmaceutical Policy 2002 limits price controls and encourages foreign investment.
• Reduced excise and import duties in recent budgets.
• Product Patent regime comes into force from January 2005.
• Acquisitions, Increased R&D and International tie-ups in post WTO phase on the cards.
• Well placed to seize the opportunity in generic drugs going off-patent in Europe and in the USA between 2005 and 2009.
• Opening up of health insurance sector and the expected growth in per capita income are among the key growth drivers.
• Being the lowest cost producer combined with FDA approved plants, Indian companies can become a global outsourcing hub for pharmaceutical products.

PACKAGING : Food & Pharma Packaging Drive the Industry Growth.

• Indian Packaging industry is USD 14 billion and growing at more than 15% p.a.
• The traditional rigid packaging users are migrating to flexible packaging in a big way.
• Laminated products including form-fill-seal pouches, laminated tubes and tetrapacks are growing at around 30% p.a.
• There are about 600-700 packaging machinery manufacturers, 95% of which are in the small and medium sector located all over India.
• Germany and Italy arer the lateset suppliers of packaging machinery to India but focus is now shifting on Taiwan, Korea and China. Indian packaging machinery imports are USD 125 million.
• Indian packaging machinery exports are rapidly growing.
• India's per capita packaging consumption is less than USD 15 against world wide average of nearly USD 100.
• The large growing middle class, liberalisation and organised retail sector are the catalysts to growth in packaging.
• Food and Pharma packaging are the key driving segments.

AUTOMATION : Triggering Growth
The globalisation of the Indian economy has exposed the domestic companies to the free market dynamics. The need to deploy automation for achieving continuous productivity improvements and supply chain efficienciesis becomig vital. Going forward, the manufacturing companies have to invest in technologies that help them become more agile, synchronize their production and business decisions, and integrate with the global manufacturing ecosystem. They also require collaborative production management systems that link the plant floor to business systems. Automation will now play a more important role in achieving operational excellence than hitherto.