Cargill India President expects strong growth for country's agriculture sector over the next 6 months

Simon George, the President of Cargill India, anticipates a robust six months ahead for India's agriculture sector. Reflecting on the year 2023, George acknowledged the mixed outcomes across Cargill's various businesses, primarily linked to agricultural products.

"2023 has been a mixed performance in terms of all our businesses because most of our businesses are aligned to the agricultural products. So if you look at Cargill’s overall performance we have some businesses which have done extremely well, while some are struggling for margins. However as an organisation we felt that in spite of the difficult situation especially from a geopolitical and poor monsoon point of view, we were able to offset it through a lot more innovation in the way we work. However the next six months look to be pretty strong for India’s Agri sector," George stated in an interview to CNBC-TV18.

In the context of economic indicators, India's second-quarter GDP growth reached 7.6%, surpassing the 6.2% recorded in the corresponding period of the previous year. However, the agriculture sector's growth in the same quarter fell short of expectations at 1.2%, compared to the anticipated 2.7%. The preceding quarter had seen a higher growth rate of 3.5%, and the same period in the previous year recorded a growth rate of 2.5%.

Simon George also predicted an ample supply of agricultural products in the first half of 2024, contributing to a reduction in price volatility.

Addressing concerns about rising inflation, the government has implemented measures such as export bans and stock limits.

Recent data from the National Statistics Office (NSO) revealed that India's retail inflation reached a three-month high of 5.55% in November. The increase was attributed to rising prices of essential kitchen commodities, with the food basket experiencing a price rise of 8.7% compared to 6.61% in October and 4.67% in November 2022.