Staunch entrepreneur Vijay Iyengar has spearheaded commodities trading and distribution company Agrocorp International since its humble beginnings in 1990. Bitten by an “entrepreneurial bug”, Vijay hopped on the opportunity to manage a venture in Myanmar, leading the foundational years of Agrocorp which now operates in 15 countries.
Although the company has grown exponentially — currently handling more than 12 metric tonnes of products against an annual sales revenue of over US$3 billion ($4.13 billion) — it is still a family business. Today, the patriarch is joined by his sons Vishal and Abhinav, who are the company’s head of business development and sustainability manager respectively, to continue supporting Agrocorp’s growth.
“I believe that it is a feather in the cap to have both my children join the business. It is important that we keep a judicious mix of professional and family talents in the company, and we wish to further grow this way. We may change the dynamics in different pockets of business, but essentially, this is how we want our core business to be,” says Vijay.
This unity and strength has allowed the company to clinch the EY Family Business Award of Excellence 2022. Vijay says it is an honour to be awarded the recognition, especially given the challenging business environment over the past few years.
“Looking at the board of past winners, we feel that we are completely dwarfed by everybody who’s on the list. We are very pleasantly surprised to be recognised — a tribute to our staff members who had contributed to the effort of keeping the company going through various recent challenges. This includes the pandemic, trade finance meltdown in Singapore, freight cost hike as well as the drought in North America where we have a significant presence,” says Vijay.
Championing sustainability
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In its early days, Singapore-based Agrocorp was mainly doing business in Myanmar, sourcing agri products to be sold across parts of Asia and Europe. Within a few years, the company reached $100 million in turnover, which led it to be recognised as one of Singapore’s Approved International Trader (eventually merged with Approved Oil Trader programme to form Enterprise Singapore’s Global Trader Programme). This further boosted Agrocorp’s growth, landing it on the E50 awards list for five consecutive years.
In 2006, the company set up its first India office in Mumbai, before expanding further across the country. It then started to look at opportunities in North America, establishing a procurement office in Canada in 2009.
“We don’t rest on our laurels, so we decided that we wanted to open a plant in Canada to start the processing segment of our business. With a lot of help from the High Commission of Canada, we were able to establish our flagship plant in Saskatchewan followed by more plants in the coming years after.”
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Having specialised in agri commodities and food products such as wheat, soybeans, cotton, pulses, edible nuts, rice and sugar, Agrocorp is now putting more emphasis on sustainability, championing ethics and consciousness in the industry. For one, it has implemented blockchain functionality, which aims to improve traceability and transparency across the entire supply chain, says Vijay.
In 2020, Agrocorp worked with blockchain provider dltledgers and DBS bank to develop the first-to-market blockchain-based electronic platform to digitalise the commodities transaction process. Aside from achieving a more seamless and secure transfer of goods ownership and payments, the streamlined process also cuts Agrocorp’s average working capital cycle by about 20 days.
The company subsequently partnered with other financial institutions such as Standard Chartered, Rabobank and Abu Dhabi Commercial bank to develop a blockchain-based trade finance platform.
Beyond that, the company had also made its move towards developing plant-based protein products, says Vijay. In 2018, Agrocorp acquired Associated Grain, one of the largest independently-owned pulses processors in Australia. The acquired company’s product portfolio includes chickpeas, mung beans and fava beans as well as cereals like wheat and barley.
The following year, Agrocorp opened a protein processing plant in Canada, utilising a dry extraction technique to process pulses to produce food ingredients such as proteins, starch and fibre.
Additionally, the company had launched its investment arm Agrocorp Ventures, mandated to invest in promising agricultural or food technology companies with disruptive business models serving a long-term, sustainable cause. One such company is LivFresh, a homegrown start-up which adopts high-tech farming methods growing leafy greens such as rockets, kale and watercress through hydroponics.
“We are working hard to tackle major issues such as food security and we are proud to have a global leadership in some of our product lines such as pulses — a plant category important to the sustainability angle. Pulses boost nitrogen levels in the soil and they are a very good source of protein that requires very few resources to be able to grow in arid conditions. They are the next frontier of plant-based proteins,” says Vijay.
Farm-to-fork
Amid its sustainability push, Vijay says that he is happy his children believe in the same core philosophy and shares the same enthusiasm towards improving global nourishment.
While the company is not looking at a public listing anytime soon, it is looking at working on several forward-facing projects — one being HerbYvore, its own plant-based brand. Vijay shares that the company had started experimenting with plant protein concentrates — before the pandemic — through its protein extraction plants.
HerbYvore currently offers a neutral-tasting plant protein product which cooks like a non-melting cheese and provides a binding effect needed in some plant-based recipes (to replace the use of dairy and eggs).
Soon, the company is looking at launching a vegan-friendly cheese product comprising cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses.
Vijay says the company’s foray into launching its own consumer brand is a way of showcasing its farm-to-fork abilities. The ingredients are sourced from a network of farmers and are then processed in its protein extraction plant in Canada and brought to Singapore for local manufacturing.
“We are an ardent advocate of the Singapore government’s 30 by 30 initiative [which aims to produce 30% of the nation’s nutritional needs locally by 2030]. We hope to play a larger role in the future as well,” he adds.
