INDIA – LT Foods Ltd., an emerging Global Food Company with focus on Specialty Rice – Basmati, Organic Food and Rice based Convenience products, has announced that it received equity capital by Rabobank’s India Agri Business Fund II Ltd.

The company reported that that its Board of Directors approved the infusion of the funds into the NBFL, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company.

This facilitates investment of up to US$1.4 billion in the global organic foods business in one or multiple stages, subject to concerned parties meeting predefined conditions in the joint agreement.

During FY18 the organic foods business reported revenues of US$3.51 billion up 49% YoY, and reflecting a strong CAGR growth of over 40% since FY13.

NBFL enjoys a substantial presence in the organic ingredients space through multi-year agreements with large institutional customers.

The equity investment from Rabobank will facilitate further development of a retail consumer portfolio through the ‘EcoLife’ brand, which offers rice, rice flour, staples, spices, nuts, etc.

Since inception the organic foods business has built direct relationships with 80,000 farmers representative of 12.4% of the total organic farmers in India.

The extensive sourcing infrastructure through sustainable farming techniques covers 15 Indian states, 116,000 hectares of land and captures ~8% of the total certified organic land in the country.

The entire operation including the sourcing, processing and selling being practices followed, are globally certified by leading institutions.

“I am very pleased with how Nature Bio Foods has scaled up over the years as a leading supplier of organic ingredients internationally.

The approval from our Board towards equity investment by Rabobank’s India Agri Business Fund II will help us carry out our strategic vision for this business, which is to develop an extensive branded portfolio with a continuous growth in ingredient business as well,” said Mr. Ashwani Arora, Managing Director & CEO of LT Foods.

“Today we are in a position to leverage the world-class infrastructure that we have created in the backend.

We will utilize this equity infusion to fuel the next leg of growth as we will build/strengthen our ‘EcoLife’ brand in India and globally as well.

Across the world Rabobank is renowned for their understanding of Agri & Foods ventures and with their strong presence and network in Europe will help us grow our business multi-fold in this segment.

We are proud of our existing association with them and intend to continue the partnership through a more robust approach as we build out the organic food business to its full potential.”

Adding further Mr. Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, Chairman and Managing Director, Rabo Equity Advisors Private Limited shared, “The opportunity to participate in an organic food venture with strong global and domestic potential is very exciting.

We have great respect and admiration for LT Foods, in their dedication towards creating a world-class food businesses.

We believe that LT Foods’ global organic food venture is the best in its class and is truly at an inflection point to deliver profitable growth on a sustained basis in the years to come, through its branded portfolio.

The business enjoys a clear head start given its focus on developing a strong backend where it is working with numerous farmer households to support the adoption of sustainable farming techniques in order to create a strong source of livelihood for them.

The India Agri Business Fund II has been created with a vision to support the further development of precisely such novel ventures and we are committed to driving this mutual agreement to greater heights.”