INDIA – Cargill India has launched ‘NatureFresh Acti Heart’, a healthy blended cooking oil, eying to expand increase its market share in the premium segment within two years.
The new product, blended equally with Canola and rice bran oils and according to the company, it has high Omega 3 content than other products in the market.
It sells cooking oil under the brands NatureFresh, Sweekar Gemini, Leonardo olive oil and Rath and this reinforces the company’s leadership in edible oil products in the country.
“We are expanding our offering in health and wellness segment in edible oil category.
This cooking oil will help cope with a sedentary lifestyle which makes one prone to obesity and heart diseases,” said Milind Pingle, Director (sales and marketing), Cargill’s food business in India.
“We are targeting to occupy 10% of this segment in next 24 months.”
He said the health oil segment comprising olive oil, canola oil, rice bran oil and blended oil has a market size of about 300,000 tonnes annually and would grow faster at over two times than the normal oils.
He also noted that the company has tied up with Mother Dairy to sell NatureFresh wheat flour (atta).
“We are also testing our new wheat products like ‘sooji’, ‘maida’ and ‘daliya’ in the market,” Pingle said.
Cargill India, a part of US’ food group Cargill recently ventured into rice bran oil segment through its Gemini brand.
Gemini rice bran oil has 40% more oryzanol as compared to any regular edible oil, which reduces bad cholesterol in the body, and is fortified with Vitamin A, D and E.
Cargill said the new segment seeks to boost its health and wellness portfolio, and is expected to contribute 2.5-3% to its overall revenue.
India’s vegetable oil consumption growth is expected to grow by 3% annually to exceed 34 million tonnes by 2030 driven by growing population, and economic growth.
According to a report, the country’s vegetable oil consumption was at 23 million tonnes in 2017.