Q1. Could you start by giving us a brief overview of your professional background, particularly focusing on your expertise in the industry?
I am a graduate in Agriculture from the College of Agriculture, OUAT, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, and a Postgraduate in Agribusiness Management from IIM, Ahmedabad, Class of 1991, both in India.
I have worked across India, spanning a career of 34 years. I have worked in the agrochemicals and seeds business for Godrej Agrovet in East India and then transitioned into the Animal Feeds Business thereafter.
Thereafter I have moved into the Poultry Business career from 1999 till date, covering length and breadth of India working for companies like C&M HyLine Farms Pvt Ltd, AFS Division of Hindustan Unilever (Ops Manager-AP and East), Venky’s India Ltd as their GM-North Zone (2003=2019), Srinivasa Farms Hyd as their COO (2019-2023), and now with Sampoorna Feeds Pvt Ltd as President since 2024.
Q2. How do you foresee emerging technologies redefining best practices in feed manufacturing over the next three to five years?
The emergence of technology is primarily in a few segments:
- Nutrition (in response to evolving genetics of animals)
- Enzymes
- Process automation in manufacturing (to substitute labour and avoid human error)
- Automation of monitoring and feeding of animals at farms
- Transactional automation via ERP and web-based apps
- Linking customers and engaging them with the organization’s systems so that they get a wholesome experience.
Nutrition is now clearly focused on waste minimisation and maximum conversion into economic output in sync with the genetic evolution/development of the animals of commercial value. Accordingly, software development for optimisation of nutrients across formulations, products, plant level, and multiple plant level operations. These work with certain preconditions/assumptions for various scenarios to hold good.
In line with the same, the supplements/additives and most importantly, the enzyme development are keeping pace. Research is underway to break down the complex molecules that are not digestible/or nutritionally available to the animals using appropriate enzymes in the heat and pressure of the feed manufacturing environment, with adequate heat stability and environmental stability.
Q3. What is the current and projected adoption rate of smart, automated feed management solutions in Asian feed markets, and what are the barriers to scaling?
I will speak from the Indian Market perspective.
It happens to be the largest dairy and the 3rd largest poultry market in the world.
Currently, the smart solutions integrate the formulation know-how with software that automatically formulates based on the metrics provided. It optimises the costs of production for various feeds, at individual product level, at plant level and even multi plant level.
The next level of integration that is thinkable is at the farm level with the nutritionist and the feed mills, wherein, based on farm feedback (via automated bird observation data), it is decided nutritionally what to feed the birds for optimal results, and conveyed in real time to feed mills to produce the same. This is both in qualitative and quantitative terms.
Q4. How is next-generation automation, IoT, or AI transforming feed plant operations and improving yield, consistency, and cost control?
For India, IoT is still a thing of the future for the feed plants to incorporate.
Before that, data integration with farms and nutrition, QC labs, etc, needs to be accomplished, so that smooth transmission of decisions takes place via automatic data capture and autonomous decision making.
The logic of nutrition, formulation, and manufacturing decision-making can be developed and automated.
Q5. What are the most promising alternative protein sources for feed gaining traction in volume markets, and what hurdles exist for scaling production or regulatory approval?
One major hurdle in the latest alternative protein sources is overcoming the nutritionally inhibiting factors. Technology has yet to be developed to optimally process these alternative proteins to produce the best results.
Q6. How are evolving regulations impacting export market access and competitive positioning for feed plants?
Regulations here don’t obstruct export market access. However, domestic demand is robust and growing, hence exports have not been the focus yet. Regulations are, in fact, supportive of exports.
Feed/food plants are mostly focused on the domestic segments. Exports have not yet become a major driver for growth, as there is surplus capacity globally.
In fact, regulations supporting the Indian animal feed industry could be a major importer of feed ingredients, as this determines their cost competitiveness.
Q7. If you were an investor looking at companies within the space, what critical question would you pose to their senior management?
As an investor, my clear interest will be to understand the value proposition that they bring to the table in the form of:
- Enterprise Value/ key financial ratios/ financials
- Driving factors that will be value accretive to the EV
- Factors that will be value decelerating for the EV
- What will be the next big changes that the company is prepared to take advantage of, and will be threatened by
- What are the big opportunities that are unrelated to the business, but can become valuable going forward
