June 4, 2018

India's CLFMA CFO Forum presented insights on future of Indian livestock sector
 

The event saw expert speakers' offering deeper insights on the prospects and potential of the sector from financial perspective.

B. Soundararajan, chairman of CLFMA of India, opened the forum by emphasising the vital role of livestock industry being the lifeline of rural India. He urged members of the industry especially chief finance officers (CFOs), to think strategically with a long-term vision.

G. Chandrashekhar, a policy commentator and senior journalist, offered a global outlook on various commodities and key drivers that are to be tracked on a regular basis. He predicted an imminent rate hike by US Fed possible due to upward trend continuing in the crude prices.

Ashish Modani from ICRA spoke on the macro-economic factors impacting the industry while explaining about exports particularly, bovine meat. 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 emphasised on the need to follow a policy-based structure approach to optimise the risk ratio.

He also mentioned that price volatility is the biggest risk in the 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 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, and collaborations will attract investment and enable effective asset utilisation.

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.

Summarising the entire event, SV 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.

Commenting on the programme, Raghavan Sampathkumar, executive director of CLFMA, said: "The livestock sector deserves more attention, budgetary allocation and parity with crop-based agriculture. We appreciate the support from NCDEX IPFT for organising this event successfully."

- CLFMA