India is a land of agriculture. The food and beverage industry accounts for ~3% of India’s GDP and is the single largest employer in the country, with more than a 7.3 million workforce. Though increasing raw material prices with strict governmental regulations are proving to be a challenge for industry growth, India continues to expand its rice exports footprint in the African, Asian, and European Union markets.
A favourable climate and abundance of inevitable resources are driving this growth; thus, India holds the largest share in the global rice trade. The robust global demand also helped India’s growth in rice exports.
India’s thrust on expanding port handling infrastructure and development of value chain involving key stakeholders along with efforts to explore new opportunities in countries and markets for rice exports in the last couple of years have led to a huge spike in rice exports. This is where Bhagwati Lacto Vegetarian Exports Pvt. Ltd. (BLV) comes into the spotlight.
Bhagwati Lacto Vegetarian Exports Pvt. Ltd., is a government recognized 3-star export house, and it is one of the leading manufacturers and exporters of basmati rice of India. The company was established in Ferozepur, in the north Indian state of Punjab, which is also known as the food bowl of India.
The Visionary Genesis
BLV was founded in 1991 by an entrepreneurship spirit of Mr Sushil Mittal, Chairman of BLV, aimed at achieving success through the delivery of high-quality products to most discerning global customers.
BLV is a professionally managed company renowned for its commitment and focuses on delivering the best rice to its international clients in more than sixty-two countries.
Rice is the food to half of the world’s population. The Food and Beverage (F&B) sector is one of the largest expenses for all people. BLV offers the best quality rice to its customers, and as a result, the company has received all the certificates of food quality systems that are obligatory benchmarks in the international food industry.
Providing Variety
BLV is renowned for producing different premium varieties of Basmati like traditional aromatic basmati rice, 1121 basmati rice, 1401 Pusa basmati rice, 1509 basmati rice, and various categories of non-basmati like Sugandha rice, PR11, Sharbati rice, etc.
BLV has been supplying rice to more than sixty-two countries UAE, the UK, Australia, Italy, Germany, New Zealand, Mauritius, Russia, Israel, Kuwait, Qatar, and many more.
Vanquishing the Hardships
The COVID-19 pandemic has placed unprecedented stresses on food supply chains, with bottlenecks in farm labour, processing, transport, and logistics, as well as momentous shifts in demand. Food supply chains, including rice, have demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of these stresses.
While the impacts of COVID-19 are still unfolding, experience so far shows the importance of an open and predictable national and international trade environment to ensure food can move to where it is needed.
The biggest risk for food security is not with food availability but with consumers’ access to food, and safety nets are therefore essential to avoid an increase in hunger and food insecurity resulting from the devastating effects of COVID-19 on jobs and livelihoods of people.
BLV follows all the protective measures for protecting its workers from exposure to and infection with coronavirus disease and its exposure risk. That risk varies based on the type of work being performed, the potential for interaction (prolonged or otherwise) with people, and contamination of the work environment.
BLV has implemented a thorough workplace hazard assessment, using appropriate combinations of engineering and administrative controls, safe work practices, and personal protective equipment to prevent worker exposures to COVID-19.
The company is obligated to identify exposure risk levels commonly associated with various sectors and train its workers on elements of infection prevention and control.
BLV keeps its employees regularly alert to and informed about changing outbreak conditions related to community spread of the virus and testing availability, implementing infection prevention and control measures accordingly.
Evolving Around the Technologies
BLV has a dedicated R&D team that looks at AI and ML with great interest. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) play major roles in managing time and they are imperative for the rice milling industry in India in the spotlight of the country’s colossal production.
To drive innovation and improve profitability, the processing plants in the food and beverage sector need all the advancements that AI and ML can provide them. BLV’s rice processors face the challenge of managing huge variations in input with fewer skilled operators.
The rice mill’s AI and machine learned sensors keep track of essential parameters that include shine, smoothness, whiteness, and percentage of broken rice grains using complex machine learning algorithms.
Machine learning in manufacturing of the other food and beverage plants commonly powers predictive analytics, robotics, predictive maintenance, and automated processes, which in a world replete with high tech competitive entrants could help make BLV’s plant more efficient, profitable, and safe.
AI and ML technology can consistently provide quality products and help considerably reduce operation waste with its connected sorter, whitener, and sensors and thus give our millers the advantage of the modern technology.
Inspiring the Future Leaders
Mr Rahul Mittal, says, “Entrepreneurship is often considered as a human feature, a result of an individual’s capability to recognize and exploit opportunities for profitable production of goods or services.”
However, the regional socio-economic environment plays a key role as a driver of entrepreneurial activity, and it is fundamentally a regional phenomenon.
“The dynamic nature and turbulence of today’s competitive environments result in a continuous flow of new challenges and opportunities,” he adds.
“This situation can be taken advantage of by the budding entrepreneurs who have the vision and the appropriate knowledge of the socio-economic context by identifying and exploiting the potential opportunities of the environment,” – Mr Rahul Mittal.
Enabling Innovation for the Future
By 2025, India will be the third-largest economy globally, after the US and China, with its share of global output ranging between 12–15%. This rapid economic expansion would result in the size of Indian GDP exceeding Japanese GDP by 2030, making India the second-largest economy in the Asia-Pacific region.
High growth rate, increasing technological capabilities, and growing influence in the region encourage a stronger presence of Indian companies both regionally and globally.
The competitive-cooperative environment is a characteristic element of the business clusters that facilitates the detection and exploitation of new opportunities in 2022 and beyond. BLV, therefore, tends to foster its specialization in terms of techniques, processes, and knowledge, both main industry and of a whole series of complementary and auxiliary activities.
BLV’s vision extends well beyond sales of rice. As budgets continue to shrink and the cost of food continues to rise globally, its vision is to provide aromatic authentic Indian basmati rice to people around the world at a favourable price. The successful implementation of this vision depends on more cost-efficient operations now more than ever.
The future of the F&B sector looks promising with the growing demand due to changes in the consumer’s lifestyle and consumption patterns.
Changes and Opportunities in the Food and Beverage Sector
The food and beverages industry accounts for ~3% of India’s GDP and is the single largest employer in the country, with more than 7.3 million workforce. One of the major challenges almost all businesses face has been the effects of COVID-19. We’ve seen how some businesses flourished overnight while others struggled to adapt. Managing supply chain disruption is not new to manufacturers and industrial companies.
Still, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic made it more paramount for processes and operations to change and some matters that finally needed to be taken off the backburner. There is a high degree of competition. Increasing raw material prices with strict governmental regulations are proving to be a challenge for industry growth.
Unfavourable climate and scarcity of input materials such as water, fruits ,etc., could also pose a challenge to the growth of the food & beverage market. Hence, it is critical to combat rising costs in the coming years and meet the fast-evolving needs of the market.
While India has favourable supply side dynamics on the back of agriculture base, the F&B sector faces other serious challenges such as huge waste due to inefficiencies in supply chain, shortage of skilled manpower with F&B specific skill, change in consumption patterns and ambiguity in food regulations.
The strong agricultural base coupled with the changing social, political and economic factors have, however, provide necessary impetus to F&B sector and is expected to drive the growth in the future.
Economic liberalisation, improved retail format , emergence of contract farming and infrastructure development. The future of the F&B sector looks promising with the growing demand due to change in the consumer’s lifestyle and consumption patterns.
- Mr Rahul Mittal, CEO, BLV
