Growing Good

On the back of a vertically integrated supply chain, and world-class R&D and manufacturing facilities, the firm is on its way to becoming a global leader in nutraceutical ingredients.

- Manu Balachandran

At their headquarters, on the outskirts of Sonepat in Haryana, the manufacturing facility of Nature Bio Foods looks rather ordinary. Outside, numerous trucks are lined up to ferry the sacks of rice that are being loaded on to them. But inside it’s a different world altogether.

Nobody, including the top management, can even consider going in without full-sleeved jackets, shoe covers, and headgear, and without signing an affidavit stating if visitors have had a fever or any injury in the past few months. Visitors also need to pass through a high-pressure air shower to enter the factory.

“We are very particular about contamination and take every effort to prevent that,” says Rohan Grover, director for global business at Nature Bio Foods. There is good reason for all that vigil. For one, the company claims to account for nearly 75 percent of all organic rice exported from India, a bulk of which is consumed in the US and Europe. “About 99 percent of our business is exports,” he says.

Nature Bio Foods is a subsidiary of LT Foods, which produces the Daawat brand of rice. The company works with nearly 70,000 farmers spread across 14 states and has over 1.1 lakh hectares under cultivation. To put that in perspective, that’s the total land area of Hong Kong.

The company has also forayed into growing soybean, flax seeds, chickpeas, red lentils, and amaranth; it says it contributes about 17 percent of all organic food exported from India. Last year, it raised 140 crore from Rabo Equity Advisors, a food and agriculture-focussed investment firm.