Nestlé India continues to face food inflation bogey

Food inflation, coupled with volatile commodity prices, remains a major challenge facing Nestlé India, the packaged food major said during its 65th annual general meeting held on Monday.

- AKSHARA SRIVASTAVA

"Food inflation continues to remain fairly highalmost double the overall headline inflation in the country. This leads to increased spending on staples like rice, wheat, oil, and other commodities, leaving little money for discretionary expenses. This is a challenge we also face in the context of fairly rampant unemployment," said Suresh Narayanan, chairman and managing director of Nestlé India, addressing shareholders.

"The huge volatility in commodity prices also influences our plans as it directly affects the costrevenue equation. However, our focus has been on penetration-led volume growth, which will be a longterm driver for the core categories of the company," he added.