CLFMA CFO Forum discuss insights on the future of Indian livestock sector

MUMBAI, 01 June 2018 : CLFMA organized its first “CFO Forum” in association with NCDEX IPFT for senior-level professionals from various sub-sectors of livestock industry such as poultry, dairy, feed and aquaculture.

The CLFMA CFO Forum witnessed expert speakers’ offering deeper insights on the prospects and potential of the sector from financial perspective. 

In India, about 20.5 million people depend for their livelihood, upon livestock sector, which contributes about 4% country’s GDP and 26% of total Agriculture GDP.

B. Soundararajan, Chairman of CLFMA of India opened the forum by emphasizing the vital role of livestock Industry being the lifeline of rural India and urged the members of the Industry especially CFO’s to think strategically with a long-term vision.

Speaking on the macro-economic factors impacting the industry while explaining about exports particularly, bovine meat, Ashish Modani from ICRA said with the livestock industry contributing to 8.5% of the employment and 4% of the GDP, this sector must focus on the quality of the overall industry infrastructure particularly processing and cold storage.   

The importance of risk reduction to ensure a stable cash flow and profitability was highlighted by Rahul Ghosh from NCDEX IPFT.

He emphasized on the need to follow a policy-based structure approach to optimize the risk ratio and also mentioned that price volatility is the biggest risk in our business.

M Krishna Rao from SBI focused on bottom line being key for any business; priority sector lending by connecting to the right persons in need; and diversity beyond crop loans where livestock sector; and how digital technology enables efficient loan processing.  

Speaking about various nitty-gritties of GST, Raghavan Ramabadran from Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan enlightened the audience about tax compliance and how GST enables seamless flow of credit in both goods and services across borders.

Articulating his passion, Ashish Mantri of Abhay Cotex shared his experience of getting funded by VC & PE players and stated that alternative proteins will lead the next wave of revolution in food and feed. He said big picture thinking, global business model, innovation & collaborations will attract investment and enable effective asset utilization. 

Sharing interesting insights on blockchain technology, Sudhir Chaudhary of Auxesis Group how innovations and evolving technologies help improve efficiency and safety in transactions for example, smarter contracts enabling faster and safer transactions.

 Dr D Ravindra of NABARD stressed the difference between viability and bankability and mentioned that socio-economic and environmental parameters are becoming more and more important in the process of evaluating potential projects for financing.   

Summarizing the entire event, S V Bhave, Deputy Chairman of CLFMA stressed on efficiency and far-sighted approach for the CFOs and concluded the forum by saying that livestock industry is poised to continue on its upward growth trend.

Caption: B. Soundararajan, Chairman of CLFMA of India speaking at the CLFMA CFO Forum