For Cibus 2012, India is the market to focus on

From May 7 to 10, the Cibus 2012 International Food Fair will be held at the Parma Fairgrounds (www.cibus.it), which is configured as a benchmark event in the Italian agrifood scene of excellence. This year the focus will be on four countries in particular, including India, and Octagona will be present with its own stand and will manage the “India” desk, offering participating companies the appropriate initial assistance and necessary support in identifying concrete opportunities for business development towards this market.

For several years already, the Indian market has been among the most interesting ones in which to engage in internationalization activities: with more than 1 billion inhabitants and an economy running at a rate of 8-9% per year, the Subcontinent is in fact among those globally experiencing the highest growth.

From a strictly food perspective, India has an important culinary tradition, with a variety of cuisines particularly typified according to the states of origin. Although the average Indian can still be defined as a tradition-bound consumer and tends to be “conservative” in terms of tastes and flavors (a phenomenon that is mainly due to a lack of information), the evolving lifestyles of the affluent and middle classes, a greater inclination toward Western tastes and standards, and the increase in foreign presence in India (due to reasons having to do with both tourism and business) have created a greater focus on foreign products: especially, curiosity about “new” flavors has increased, just as attention to the quality and characteristics of the products being consumed is increasing by the day. A further element corroborates this thesis: the ostentation of status by the upper and middle classes, increasingly constitutes one of the drivers of an orientation towards the constant tasting of products not strictly belonging to the Indian consumption tradition.

But it is not just new local consumer trends that make India a potentially explosive market. With the sector's annual growth rate hovering around 4.1% and food goods production second only to China globally, the environment appears truly ripe for taking business action, especially when one considers that giant strides have been made so far: while the market value in 2005 was around 120 million euros, by 2025 it will exceed 270,000 million euros. The figures to follow testify to the unstoppable growth of the food sector, since India:

• is the world's second largest producer of fruits and third largest producer of vegetables (8.4% of world production), with an increase in fruit production of 3.9%
• Has the highest number of livestock in the world including cattle, sheep and poultry
• Has a meat production of 9.6 million
• Has milk production equivalent to 91 million tons (+4% annually)
• Has an estimated fish production of around 6.4 million tons
• Has an annual production of consumer food goods of 4 million tons
• Has bread production (reserved for small and medium enterprises) reaching 2.7 million tons

Related sectors such as food processing are also experiencing steady growth: with a turnover of €55 billion and an annual growth rate of between 9 and 12%, this industry ranks fifth in India in terms of production, consumption, exports and expected growth. The factor that should entice foreign players to invest in India is especially the low level of processing in the country due to the lack of proper storage, transportation and cooling infrastructure. Again, the figures are more indicative than ever when considering that only 2.2% of fruits and vegetables, 35% of milk, 21% of meat, 6% of poultry products, and 8% of produce are subject to food processing.

This changed scenario in terms of both consumption and market size is affecting the choices of operators from the bottom up, especially with regard to the HoReCa and mass retail channel, a rising star in the Indian retail sector. The modern retail concept has led to the development of shopping centers and malls with a variety of outlets offering entertainment, shopping, and food, all under one roof.Today, retail accounts for 10% of the country's total GDP, and business opportunities for food products are registered not only in the large-scale retail but also in Speciality Stores.

The different options provided by the HoReCa channel especially concern hotel chains, stand-alone restaurants, restaurants within hotels, lounge bars, and emerging food chains.

In summary, there is no shortage of opportunities vis-à-vis this market for Italian companies operating within the food sector.

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