Opening up the world's potential
food factory
networking
6 What'sNewS Issue 2 February 1999
The team at Rabo India never tire of pressing home the
fact that the Indian sub-continent has the potential to
become the world's food factory. At a dual opening of two
offices at the end of January, the bank's arrival was clearly
welcome, although puzzling to many people invited to the
seminar and workshop organized around the official
launch: how can a primarily food and agribusiness (F&A)
focused bank be hugely successful and Triple-A rated? The
five-strong management team - Hans Hannaart, Rana
Kapoor, Ashok Kapur, Anton Nillesen and Harkirat Singh
supported by Frans van Bijsterveld, Peter Greenberg and
Hans Smits had the answers.
Tough ceremony
Priority sectors
Lending to the agricultural
sector has never been a
popular option in the Indian
domestic financial services
market. Set-aside regulations
imposed by governmental
obliging Indian banks to
provide a specific percentage
of credit to farmers and other
F&A sectors are complied
with, but without enthusiasm.
The bottom line is that
banking to the less than
glamorous F&A industry is
perceived as high risk for low
return. Unsurprisingly, the
workshop arranged in
conjunction with the
Confederation of India Food
Trade and Industry (CIFTI)
and the ministry of food
processing on financing this
exceptionally promising sector
was well attended by close to
50 participants from banks,
the industry itself and
chamhers of commerce. All
were obviously intrigued to
learn more about Rabobank's
continued success in servicing
F&A around the world.
'The answer is as straight-
forward as the question,'
comments Rana Kapoor. 'It
comes down to knowledge. If
you know the sector intima-
tely, if you know the
customer intiniately, then you
are in a much better position
to evaluate both customer
Bombay's opening, good fortune encouraged through a traditional
candle lighting ceremony
needs and the risk factor
involved. That was basically
our message at the
workshop.' The team and the
three Rabobankers from
Utrecht had already had quite
some experience in answering
this question. The press
conference arranged in
Mumbai was a tough follow
up to the traditionally simple
though moving opening
ceremony of lighting candles
to bring good fortune to an
enterprise. At the conference,
international Rabobankers
wanted to talk about
knowledge-driven customer
focus. The press was fixated
on how much capital we
would be bringing into the
country and how Rabo India
would finance its business -
the current structure is a so-
called finance company,
although the India team
hopes to receive a banking
licence by year-end.
Exactly which sectors would
be targeted by Rabo India
was another issue of press
interest. Rejecting firmly the
notion of finance to the
primary industry, which is
Rabobank International
policy everywhere except
Australia and New Zealand,
the team listed food
processing as a priority. 'We
are thinking about sugar,
edible oils, dairy, fruit, and
vegetables - all of which are
sectors which have huge
potential, not least as possibl
areas of export growth, but
also for domestic consump-
tion,' says Hans Hannaart.
'Although increasing exports
The Bombay team optimistic
about the future
