Patanjali plans to go global with 'swadeshi' products

Encouraged by the Narendra Modi governments support for domestic manufacture and indigenous products, Yoga guru Ramdev-owned Patanjali group is all set to explore international markets with its FMCG products and may also enter neighbouring countries such as Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Patanjali plans to invest Rs3,000-5,000 crore to set up half-a-dozen plants across the country to manufacture Patanjali ayurvedic medicines and consumer food products.

The emerging local group, which recently announced plans to set up a unit in Nagpur, Maharashtra, is also scouting for a site in Bengal to set up a plant for rice-based food products, including fast moving consumer goods, rice bran oil, packaged rice and other products.

Reports quoting Ramdev said, Patanjali, which has a mother plant for ayurvedic products, has already identifiied Guwahati as a site for one of the six ayurvedic plants being set up across the country to meet rising demand.  from our mother plant at Haridwar. In the east, I have identified Guwahati for an ayurvedic plant. I am also looking to set up a plant in Bengal to produce rice-based fast moving consumer goods, rice bran oil, packaged rice and more," Ramdev told The Telegraph.

"We have already set up our units in Nepal and Bangladesh and our products have reached the Middle East and became popular in some of the countries, including Saudi Arabia," Baba Ramdev told reporters in Nagpuar.

"We should be concentrating in poor countries as the profits from those countries will be utilised for development work there itself.

"The entry to Pakistan and Afghanistan will mostly depend on the prevailing political situation, and if the situation is politically conducive, units will be set up there," he said.

He said their company products are reaching right up to Canada.

Patanjali has already entered Azerbaijan which has 90 per cent Muslim population, he said claiming that a top industrialist there has shown interest in his products.

Ramdev said Patanjali will also venture into garments area and a 'swadeshi jeans' will be launched by end of the year or early next year.

Patanjali is also planning to enter the fashion and apparel market with the launch of Indianised jeans to cash in on the young consumer. The local brands will compete with foreign brands, Ramdev said at the lauch of the group's Nagpur operations.

Besides, the group will be launching refined edible oil this year.

In fact, Ramdev said, Patanjali will be setting up its biggest unit on a 40-lakh sq ft at Mihan in Nagpur, which will be bigger than its first unit at Haridwar and biggest in the country.

The unit will involve total investment of around Rs1,000 crore and will have the potential to provide employment opportunities to 10,000 to 15,000 people.

Patanjali also proposes to set up an export unit in the adjoining SEZ with Mihan and other infrastructure offering better connectivity with the outside world.

Patanjali is in the process of setting up major units in Madhya Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Karnataka, besides establishing subsidiary units in a number of places, as part of supply chain.

Backed by 200 scientists and R&D units to support product quality, Patanjali has set a target of Rs50,000 crore in the FMCG segment, according to Ramdev.