AGRI SUMMIT 2016
‘FMCG-NAVIGATING FUTURE’
Agri Summit is the flagship event of Department of Agri-Business Management at SIIB. This year, the theme of the event was FMCG-NAVIGATING FUTURE. The keynote speakers of the event were Mr. Pavan Kumar Singh (Marketing Head, Amul) and Mr. Puneet Gaharana (Associate Director, KPMG).The lighting of the lamp by the speakers along with our director Dr.Asmita Chitnis marked the beginning of the event. Dr Nisha Bharti (HOD-Agri dept.) welcomed the guests and also briefed the students about the purpose of Agri Summit and how the FMCG sector is making a revolution.
Agri Summit 2016 also witnessed the launch of ‘AGROZINE’ (SIIB’s Agri Magazine) which is an initiative by students of Agri-Business Management and it is solely dedicated to agricultural happenings in the country. About close to 350 outside visitors including students & faculty members from colleges all across India keenly participated in this Event.
Mr.Pavan Kumar Singh addressed the students and gave meaningful insights on the concept of VFMCG with facts and figures which proved how AMUL has moved into the VFMCG (Very fast moving consumer goods) umbrella. He shared some interesting facts about Amul like Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel was the first person behind Amul’s marketing strategies.
Mr Puneet Gaharana (Associate Director,KPMG) discussed about Contract Farming, He also focused on the challenges faced by the agricultural supply chain .He gave valuable insights on the microfinance industry and the agricultural credit system. He quoted the examples of Big Basket and Patanjali emerging into the FMCG sector.
After an enriching session, there was a lively interaction between the students and the speakers where a lot of questions were asked by the students and the speakers answered their queries. With this the first half of the pre-lunch session came to an end.
The second half of the session commenced with the panel discussion on the topic – Rural Market: New Growth Frontier, the members of the panel were Mr.M.A Tejani (Jt Managing Director,Gits Food Products (P) Ltd),Mr Vikas Dhand (Head of Modern Trade Business, ITC West Region),Mr Praveen Wagh (Deputy General Manager,Supply Chain,McDonalds India ), Mr.Manshul Nagpal (National Trade Marketing Manager,Perfetti Van Melle) and Mr.Ganesh Hingmire (GMGC). The panel discussed about the challenges of rural market and that the heart of our country lies in the villages, but due to the conventional mindset, the rural customers are considered to be inferior and the products designed are not up to the mark. They quoted the example of Mahatma Gandhi, who said that a major chunk of the customer base of the marketers lies in the rural sector. The rural customers focuses more on necessities than luxury ,so the marketing strategies for the rural market were discussed as the functions of core product are focused more by the rural customers than the frills associated, therefore the strategies differ from the urban market. Panel made the session interesting by quoting many examples from the corporate world.
The panel discussion was followed by a Q&A session where the students asked some interesting questions and the panel answered it with relevant examples.
Following the insightful session, Mrs. Ketaki Barve (Faculty in-charge, Agri Summit) expressed her gratitude by delivering a vote of thanks to everyone associated with this event.
