COFCO Agri Launches Nutripride Soyabean Oil - Emphasises Focus On Consumer Needs In Rapidly Growing Indian Market

Agra: Noble Natural Resources, an Indian arm of COFCO Agri, aUSD $30 billion Agri Business MNC,invested around Rs. 150 croresin a State-of-the-Art Edible Oil Refinery at Kandla, Gujarat. The refinery has acapacity of 1400 MT per day,meeting all global best practices of safety, hygiene and quality.

From its first full year of the operations during 2014, the Company established itself as a preferred supplier in the Bulk Edible Oil market among institutional buyers.The quality of product was highly appreciated by the end-consumers which included India’s various food companies. Continuing the success story of 2014, the Company entered into the Branded edible Oil segment by launching the Brand “NUTRILIVE”. This brand captured a sizeable market penetration in northern and western India within a year of its launch, with a strong distribution and retail network of 21 stock points catering to over 700 distributors in 11 states in North & West India.

Drawing inspiration from these successes and having served the middle class and major mass consumers with a good quality product at a reasonable price through NUTRILIVE – and with the rising awareness towards the health across the country and to serve the upper middle class and elite segment of consumers --the Company has launchednew value-added premium brand in the edible oil segment: “NUTRIPRIDE,”focusing on health as well as taste. The Company is confident of making strong inroads in the Indian kitchen by capturing the critical mindshare of Indian women.

Commenting on the launch, Mr. Samir Desai, Managing Director (G&O) at Noble Natural, said,“We are happy to launch NUTRIPRIDE Premium Soyabean oil and we are confident of gaining a sizeable marketshare and a permanent place on the kitchen shelves as a key cooking ingredient. We believe that if you have a good product which serves the need of the consumer then you will win a loyal customer base and growing market share over a period of time.” He added: “This will complement our existing product NUTRILIVE, which has been a great success. NUTRIPRIDEis a value-added product with enhanced nutrition benefits and is being produced in our world class refinery, ensuring global best practices of health &safety, hygiene and quality”. He further added, “We believe in servicing our customers through good qualityproducts consistently at reasonable prices.”

NUTRIPRIDE is available in a variety of easy and convenient storage and packaging options catering to moderate to large kitchen usage. Initially, it will be available across Northern and Western India.

Speaking on the cookery benefits, Ms. Nita Mehta, Celebrity chef and cookbook author said,“People now are health conscious and prefer healthier alternatives including oil, which is an integral part of Indian cooking, “NUTRIPRIDE” Premium Soyabean Refined Oilhas DimethyPolysiloxane (DMPS), which leads to lower absorption of oil by food. It is not just light but smooth and neutral in taste and therefore enhances the rich flavours of Indian food.

She added: “Fortified with Vitamins A and D, NUTRIPRIDE brings an unbeatable advantage to the heart and overall health. The anti-oxidants add a booster shot to the longevity of oil and goodness of soya which is rich in Omega-3 fatty acids helps maintain an active lifestyle.”

Soyabean oil is witnessing a healthy growth of 13 %owing to rising health concerns of traditional alternatives, and the growing awareness of its soyabean oil’s benefits. Moreover the branded segment of refined soybean oil is growing at a pace of over 25%.

Operating in some of the world’s most resource-rich, origination markets, CofcoAgri handles a diverse range of agricultural products, supplying a global customer base. It operates an arsenal of assets to support the sourcing, processing, storage and marketing of a wide spectrum of essential raw materials – from grains, oilseeds, vegoilsand sugar to coffee & cotton.

COFCO Agrihas an end-to-end presence in the Indian market.