SABA Industries Group

The Business of Agriculture magazine interacted with Asia’s emerging philanthropist, Ms Malini Saba, a self-made businesswoman, who has helped millions of underserved women, farmers and children in South and Southeast Asia, South America, Africa and the US. In this interview, she provided us with the insights of her company and she is planning to expand her business in India.

- Mandeep Kaur​​​​​​​

Please tell us about your journey of becoming a $1.5 billion company.

Our journey started 26 years ago. We started as an investor, and then we entered into a commodity business. Initially, we started this business with iron ore only and then slowly, we expanded our business into other metals and agriculture. During this journey, we endured failures, but with a sheer determination, we pulled ourselves out of it.

How did you conceive the idea of starting this company?

I wanted to work for myself. I had the vision to make enough to be comfortable and not to be dependent on anyone for income. Also, I have a passion for agricultural commodities, such as rice, and natural resources because they are essential for human existence. Being an entrepreneur, both success and failure are on your lap, but it is a fact that there is no success without failure. It is because of the hurdles and failures you learn the basics to build a true business on a solid foundation.

Put some light on your agriculture business model?

Agriculture is a very important sector as far as the food is concerned. This sector is very much dependant on Mother Nature, but it is that era where we can master the skills and perform well.

As per our model, we work with the farmers and the distributors. We strongly believe that it is very important to empower the farmers we work with because they are the ones, who feed the world. We provide infrastructure and technology to the farmers to enable them to increase their production. The less time they spend on the field harvesting, the quicker they can sell their product; and therefore, they can reinvest their time and money in the next crop. This also helps to improve crop production as well as crop yield.

Saba Industry is exporting 5,00,000 tons of rice worldwide. Please tell us about other agriculture commodities that you are trading.