Chennai: While India grapples with intense malnutrition problem, there have been several products hitting the market that claim of containing micro-nutrients to address the issue. With the government running initiatives on one side, parallel to it are private entities to supplement the government’s efforts.
Among the lot is Royal DSM, a global science-based company dealing with nutrition, health and sustainable living that launched Nu Shakti. The products aim to cater to the micro-nutrient need among Indian population. In an interview with News Today, DSM president – Latin America, Mauricio Müller Adade speaks about the company’s venture into consumer segment, market and more.
Excerpts from the interview:
Q: Why has the company forayed in consumer segment and nutrition in India?
A: We have been in India since 1989 and has largely focused on developing science-based products and solutions for business to business segment. India is a great market and the trade opportunities are tremendous. According to the latest data available, 45 per cent of the population is malnourished in India.
Interestingly, it is not prevalent only in the community that are covered in government programmes, but also in higher-income classes and the number is estimated to be around 35 to 40 per cent. We believe it can be tackled with product improvement. Thus, investing in nutrition is important towards addressing multiple inter-linked issues of malnutrition, obesity or micronutrient deficiency that has a cascading impact on a nation’s economic potential due to lost productivity cost.
Q: What kind of product improvement has the company undertaken?
A: Rice is very much consumed in the country and is the staple diet in many states. Through research, we have come up with a kernel of rice which is fortified with vitamins and minerals such as folic acid and iron. This concept of home fortification is done in an affordable way.
Q: Tell us about trends in the industry and the importance of research at DSM.
A: More than 10 years ago, the company decided to invest in innovation centre dedicated to researches that are looking into the different trends. One of the trends is personalised nutrition and from this perspective, we invest quite a bit. We have researching centres in the Netherlands, China, North America and Singapore.
Q: Does the trend of going organic contribute to multi-grain industry?
A: The trend of going organic is here and is going to stay. But the main issue is to make the products affordable; as globally, we see issues with regards to hunger. We have 820 million people globally go to bed hungry, so we have to balance the trends out and need to offer the best to tackle malnutrition problem.
Q: How important is Chennai market?
A: It is crucial for us from a business perspective, but we also have plans to go broader into the State. Our total business in India has drawn around 14 per cent in the previous year.
Q: How much revenue has DSM gained in India and across the globe?
A: In 2018, our global revenue touched €10 billion and the Indian revenue was around $200 million.