Gemini eyes 10% mkt share for sunflower oil in K'taka

Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil, which forayed into the Karnataka market three years ago, aims to capture 10% of market share in the state by 2019. At present, it has 3% market share in Karnataka.

Freedom is the flagship brand of Gemini Edibles and Fats India (GEF India), and it is available as Freedom Refined Sunflower Oil, Freedom Physically Refined Rice Bran Oil and Freedom Mustard Oil.

The company, which has two factories in Andhra Pradesh at Kakinada and Krishnapatnam, has invested Rs 240 crore on its third factory in Kakinada.

“Once we touch 10% market share in Karnataka, we will be coming up with a factory here,” P Chandra Shekhara Reddy, VP-Sales and Marketing of GEF India told DH.

It enjoys 52% market share in Andhra Pradesh and 33% in Telangana. With a turnover of Rs 4,000 crore in the last fiscal year, the company has the capacity to produce 1,200 tonnes of sunflower oil per day.

Reddy said the edible oil industry is growing at 5% per annum and branded packed oil is growing at 10-15%. The company is growing 30% Y-o-Y. “If you take the overall size of edible oil, it is 18 million tonnes and sunflower oil is 2.5 million tonnes. Of this 2.5 million tonnes, almost 90% are imported. Close to 99% of sunflower oil is imported from Ukraine and 1% or 2% from Russia,” Reddy said, adding Karnataka consumes 3.6 lakh tonnes of sunflower oil a year.

Steep hike

Edible oil prices have gone up due to increased duty imposed by the government on both crude and refined edible oil. “From August 2017 to March 2018, the import duty has gone up from 12% to 38.5%. This reflects in the price of sunflower oil, which has increased from Rs 80 to Rs 92 per litre at present. It might further increase to Rs 95,” Reddy said, adding the cost for the end user has increased by Rs 13.30 per litre for sunflower oil.

He added that any hike in duty for edible oil has to be passed on to the end user.