Top Agro based companies

e-Choupal

e-Choupal is an initiative of ITC Limited, a conglomerate in India, to link directly with rural farmers via the Internet for procurement of agricultural and aquaculture products like soybeans, wheat, coffee, and prawns. e-Choupal tackles the challenges posed by Indian agriculture, characterized by fragmented farms, weak infrastructure and the involvement of intermediaries. The programme installs computers with Internet access in rural areas of India to offer farmers up-to-date marketing and agricultural information.

ITC Limited has provided computers and Internet access in rural areas across several agricultural regions of the country, where the farmers can directly negotiate the sale of their products with ITC Limited. Online access enables farmers to obtain information on mandi prices, and good farming practices, and to place orders for agricultural inputs like seeds and fertilizers. This helps farmers improve the quality of their products, and helps in obtaining a better price.

ITC Limited kiosk with Internet access is run by a sanchalak — a trained farmer. The computer is housed in the sanchalak's house and is linked to the Internet via phone lines or by a VSAT connection. Each installation serves an average of 600 farmers in the surrounding ten villages within about a 5 km radius. The sanchalak bears some operating cost but in return earns a service fee for the e-transactions done through his e-Choupal. The warehouse hub is managed by the same traditional middle-men, now called samyojaks, but with no exploitative power due to the reorganisation. These middlemen make up for the lack of infrastructure and fulfill critical jobs like cash disbursement, quantity aggregation and transportation.

Since the introduction of e-Choupal services, farmers have seen a rise in their income levels because of a rise in yields, improvement in quality of output, and a fall in transaction costs. Even small farmers have gained from the initiative. Farmers can get real-time information despite their physical distance from the mandis. The system saves procurement costs for ITC Limited. The farmers do not pay for the information and knowledge they get from e-Choupals; the principle is to inform, empower and compete. e-market place for spot transactions and support services to futures exchange

There are 6,100 e-Choupals in operation in 35,000 villages in 10 states (Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu), affecting around 4 million farmers.

Godrej Agrovet

Godrej Agrovet Limited (GAVL) is an Indian animal feed and agribusiness company. Godrej Agrovet is a highly diversified company backed by research and development. The company holds leading market position in poultry processing, animal feed, oil palm plantations and agri inputs. The company belongs to one of the highly diversified Indian Conglomerate the Godrej Group. The Godrej group was founded by Ardeshir Godrej in 1897 with the manufacturing of locks.

The animal feed business is India's one of the largest, producing over 10,57,000 tons annually of feed and nutrition products for dairy cattle, broiler, layer & aquaculture. Its turnover was around 3100 Cr in 2012–13. In 2013 Godrej Agrovet has come up with the biggest manufacturing plant of broiler feed and layer feed in India with a capacity of around 30,000 MT/month; this plant is catering the demand of the poultry feed market in North India; this automated plant has been installed in Khanna (Ludhiana) by Neotech and Buhler–. Four new automated plants are also being commissioned with more than 15000 ton/month capacity each in Kharagpur, Baramati, Bangalore & Erode to cater the demand of upgrowing market of animal feed in all over India. GAVL has also entered Bangladesh through a JV with the ACI Group, where it is rapidly becoming a key player in animal feed and poultry breeding.

The company is the one of the largest oil palm developers in India. The area under oil palm plantation is more than 55,000 hectares spread across Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa, Maharashtra, Orissa and Mizoram. The company works directly with the farmers for oil palm production. Very recently in Mizoram, the company have commissioned a mill, which is the largest private sector in Mizoram.

Godrej Tyson food is the joint venture of Godrej Agrovet with Tyson Foods, U.S.A. The company entered in joint venture in 2008 to manufacture and market packaged processed poultry and vegetarian products in India The company offers a wide range of packaged products in the brand name of Good Chicken and Yummiez. The company have manufacturing plants in Mumbai and Bangalore.

The agri-inputs business is a niche player in innovative agro-chemicals, with strong market share in plant growth promoters, soil conditioners and cotton herbicide. Godrej Agrovet is the world's largest producers and marketers of Homobrassinolides and also the leader in selective post-emergence cotton herbicides in India and have a 45% market share in the Triacontanol segment.

Britannia

Britannia Industries Limited is an Indian food and beverage company. Founded in 1892 and headquartered in Kolkata, it is one of India's oldest existing companies. It is now part of the Wadia Group headed by Nusli Wadia. The company sells its Britannia and Tiger brands of biscuits, breads and dairy products throughout India and in more than 60 countries across the world. Beginning with the circumstances of its takeover by the Wadia group in the early 1990s, the company has been mired in several controversies connected to its management.

The company was established in 1892 by a group of British businessmen with an investment of ?295. Initially, biscuits were manufactured in a small house in central Kolkata. Later, the enterprise was acquired by the Gupta brothers, mainly Nalin Chandra Gupta, an attorney, and operated under the name "V.S. Brothers." In 1918, C.H. Holmes, an English businessman based in Kolkata, was taken on as a partner and The Britannia Biscuit Company Limited (BBCo) was launched. The Mumbai factory was set up in 1924 and Peek Freans UK, acquired a controlling interest in BBCo. Biscuits were in high demand during World War II, which gave a boost to the company's sales. The company name was changed to the current "Britannia Industries Limited" in 1979. In 1982, the American company Nabisco Brands, Inc. acquired the parent of Peek Freans and became a major foreign shareholder.

The company's principal activity is the manufacture and sale of biscuits, bread, rusk, cakes and dairy products.

Biscuits account for 90% of Britannia's annual revenue. The company's factories have an annual capacity of 433,000 tonnes. The brand names of Britannia's biscuits include VitaMarieGold, Tiger, Nutrichoice, Good day, 50 50, Treat, Pure Magic, Milk Bikis, Bourbon, Nice Time and Little Hearts among others.

In 2006, Tiger, the mass market brand, realised $150.75 million in sales, including exports to the U.S. and Australia. This amounts to 20% of Britannia revenues for that year.

Dairy products contribute close to 10% to Britannia's revenue. The company not only markets dairy products to the public but also trades dairy commodities business-to-business. Its dairy portfolio grew to 47% in 2000-01 and by 30% in 2001-02. Its main competitors are Nestlé India, the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB), and Amul (GCMMF).

Britannia holds an equity stake in Dynamix Dairy and outsources the bulk of its dairy products from its associate.