Mumbai’s
Deonar slaughter house receives approval from UAE
The
Greater Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s Deonar slaughter house, the target
of all animal rights activists, has been approved by the United Arab
Emirates for exporting mutton to Dubai, thus making Mumbai the first
city in the country whose municipal abattoir has received recognition
in the international meat trade.
The
20-year-old Deonar abattoir has separate livestock markets for sheep,
cattle, goats and pigs. Its slaughter lines can perform both the jhatka
and halal forms of slaughter, which enables it to export meat to the
Middle East.
Trade
sources forecast beef exports in 2003 to be around 295,000 tonnes due
to growth in demand from other traditional markets.
The
growth is also expected to be supported by increased exports to a few
emerging African markets and access to relatively less quality conscious
South African countries.
Government
postpones tax on liquor for three months
The
Government of India has indefinitely postponed the implementation of
the Budget proposal for 10 per cent tax collection at source (TCS) for
the country’s Rs 28,000-crore India-made Foreign Liquor (IMFL) industry.
According
to an official release, the decision was due to representations from
various quarters including state government authorities in the matter
of various aspects of the scheme, as the Union Finance Ministry felt
that it is necessary to look into all these representations before the
scheme is made applicable to dealers in IMFL.
The
logic behind levying a 10 per cent tax was to mainly bring into the
income tax net all the liquor wholesalers and retailers who were thought
to be not paying taxes. There are about 1,000 wholesalers and 25,000
odd IMFL retailers in the country.
Under
the TCS scheme, the seller of IMFL, whether the government, corporation,
manufacturer, distributor or wholesaler, is obliged to collect from
the buyer tax at the rate of 10 per cent of the purchase amount and
credit it to the Government of India. The purchaser can take credit
for this tax already paid while filing returns.
Meat
export to Egypt may resume, exporters hopeful
There
is good news for Indian meat exporters as there are chances that Egypt,
a major market for Indian meat, would open its doors to them. Egypt
had abruptly stopped imports in February fearing that Indian meat was
infected with sarcocysts, a
parasite.
Three
leading meat exporters – Allana, Hind Agro and Al Kabeer – under the
umbrella of the state-run Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export
Development Authority (Apeda) have returned from Cairo with the promise
of a review. As a first step, an Egyptian team of experts will soon
visit India to inspect the country’s abattoirs and see for themselves
the state-of-the-art facilities.
Bikanervala
targets Dubai, opens first global outlet
Bikanervala,
one of the major players in the Indian snack food industry, has opened
their first global retail restaurant in Dubai. The move has been triggered
by a steady rise in the ethnic Indian population in the UAE and surrounding
Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries. For this Bikanervala has tied
up with Lal’s Trading Company, one of the biggest operators of hyper
market and super market of GCC countries for its operations of retail
chains.
The
Lal’s Group of Companies and Bikanervala India have also announced massive
expansion plans for the brand across the UAE and GCC within the next
18 months.
HLL
sells its famous Dalda brand for Rs 90 crore
Hindustan
Lever Limited (HLL) sold off one of its oldest brands, Dalda, to the
US-based company Bunge, a $14 billion agribusiness and food company,
for Rs 90 crore. It signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with
Bunge, to sell its edible oils and fats business in India and Nepal,
including the 66-year-old Dalda and its other extensions.
The
sale is a part of HLL’s strategy to exit from loss-making businesses.
As consumer preferences have moved away from hydrogenated oils to healthier
cooking media, Dalda had lost its command over the Indian kitchen.
Café
Coffee Day unveils ambitious expansion plan
As
the boom in coffee retail continues, the Bangalore-based retail chain
Cafe Coffee Day plans to open 12 cafes by end-June and 14 cafes in the
month of July alone.
The
extension plans include the opening of 12 outlets per month, up to March
2004. All outlets would be company-owned and the financial resources
would come from the parent company. The company is seeking to build
extensions under the mother-brand of Coffee Day, even as it remains
in the core business of coffee.
Haryana
sanctions loans to set up food parks in the state
The
Haryana State Industrial Development Corporation (HSIDC) is in the process
of setting up four food parks in the state with the assistance of the
Union Ministry of Food Processing to encourage agricultural diversification
and varied crop pattern, a HSIDC spokesman said. To achieve this, the
Corporation has sanctioned term loans of Rs 50 crore to promote agro-based
and food processing industrial units in the state. The move is under
the aegis of Industrial Development Bank of India Refinance Scheme.
The
first such park is coming up at Saha in Ambala district for which 70
acres of land had been earmarked, he said adding the second such park
would be set up at Rai in Sonepat district.
The
Container Corporation of India (Concor) is setting up a cold chain project
at Rai in order to provide logistic services like controlled conditions
between the production centres, cold stores and retail outlets of the
produce of the Food Park, he added.
Foster’s
to set up a second brewery in India soon
Foster’s
India is chartering its growth plan. The Australian beer company is
planning to set up its second brewery in India to successfully meet
the growing demand for premium international beer. The company is yet
to finalise a location for the second brewery.
Launched
in Mumbai in 1998, Foster’s has gained approximately 28 per cent market
share in Maharashtra making it the second largest selling beer brand
in the state. In other states also the brand enjoys market shares of
up to 50 per cent in premium outlets.
The
company is expected to have a turnover of Rs 60 crore at the end of
June 2003, up by 12 per cent compared to the last year’s turnover of
Rs 50 crore (the company’s accounting year is from June
to July).
Dabur
Foods to enter the institutional segment
Dabur
Foods, a wholly owned subsidiary of Dabur India, is planning to target
the institutional segment by offering new products categories like ketchup
and low-priced fruit juices. The company already has a presence in the
hotels, restaurants and cafe segment with tomato puree under the Hommade
brand and fruit juices under the Real brand.
“Till
now we have been focusing on the retail segment with all efforts directed
towards building up our brands with the customers. But now we are looking
at developing an institutional brand that can cut across all product
categories. The new brand is expected to be in place by the third quarter
of the current fiscal,” said Sanjay Sharma, Head (marketing), Dabur.
Shaw
Wallace to import wines into India
As
a part of its expansion plans, Shaw Wallace has entered into exclusive
distribution tie-ups with various wine companies around the world for
import and sale of a range of wines in India.
The
company has tied up with French Bordeaux range of Cordier wines, Italian
wines from GIV (the largest wine maker in Italy under the Folonari brand),
Californian Arbor Mist (the world’s largest selling fruit wine) and
Paul Masson (the world’s largest selling carate wine). The company will
also launch the Lanson champagne for the Indian market. Most of these
wines are likely to be introduced soon and would cost around Rs 500.
Amul
reports sales growth of 18%
The
owners of the Amul brand, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation
(GCMMF), have recorded a 17.5 per cent increase in their sales turnover
in 2002-03, at Rs 2,746 crore. The previous year the cooperative had
reported a turnover of 4 per cent at Rs 2,336 crore.
According
to an Amul press release, the Amul ice-cream showed the best results
with sales growth of 29 per cent. Milk grew 56 per cent while ghee grew
29 per cent.
While
Amul's new initiatives like Pizza, chocolates and confectionery did
not perform well, cheese, butter, ghee and skimmed milk powder continued
to add to the topline.
Barista
charters growth plan –to introduce international coffee blends
The
Barista Coffee Company has unveiled plans to introduce international
coffee blends from Gautemala, Peru and Java in India in the next quarter.
The company recently announced price reduction of about 22 per cent
on coffee at all Barista Espresso Bars, besides launching three international
blends.
Company
officials said that the new strategy is aimed at promoting international
coffee blends through 40 Barista stores in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore.
With the move, the company also hopes to expand the number of Barista
Espresso Bars on an average rate of two to three per month as well.
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