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Unilever chief assures support to agri-food sector, stresses global outlook

Unilever is ready to offer expertise in development of infrastructure such as construction of warehouses and cold storage chains across the country's agriculture belt in partnership with other private and public institutions and government agencies.

Addressing the members of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bombay today, Unilever chairman Niall Fitzgerald said that a distribution system including warehouses and a cold chain is the need of the hour for India. For the country wastes as much fruit and vegetable produce every year as the UK's entire fruit and vegetable output.

Today just two per cent of India's fruit and vegetable output is processed. This figure contrasts with 23 per cent in Malaysia and 20 per cent in Thailand, he said.

Unilever is prepared to work in partnership with other Indian and multinational corporations as well as the state and national governments and the development banks and financial institutions in order to see this infrastructure established, he said.

Transnational companies could act as catalysts for the transfer of knowledge and technical expertise in development of infrastructure and markets, he said.

The free flow of capital should be based on long-term investment perspective; controls could be imposed occasionally on short-term basis in order to provide breathing space for domestic reform. Politicians should be offering more by way of encouragement of foreign investment in the country, he opined.

Fitzgerald said that India would find its own pace and its own route map for reform, but the direction looks clear, and that India is now poised to move up a gear, as structural reform -- particularly, in India's case, reform of the public sector -- fuels economic growth.

The more that resources can be allocated efficiently, the more they will feed through into improved living standards for the population as a whole, Fitzgerald added.

But growth, he cautioned, cannot take place in isolation. All countries must pay attention to three key propositions to prosper. ''First, we need to understand the reality of interdependence -- that we really do now live in a global village. Second, we need to recognise the value of open economies. And third, the business community needs to shoulder its share of the responsibility for articulating, much more clearly, the benefits of an open trading system for everyone,'' he said.

No country can afford to pass up its share of growing world trade flows, the engine of investment and growth. ''While it is imperative that confidence is restored in the regulatory frameworks governing the world's financial markets, we also need to concentrate on the world trading system. We live in an interdependent world. Interdependence means that it is no longer possible to discuss trade liberalisation, capital flows or investment regimes in isolation,'' he said.

He said free trade does not only open the door to increased international trade and investment, but also to increased competition. ''Prospering in the face of global competition requires investment in modern technology and infrastructure, and the efficient use of resources. In many emerging economies, this sort of step change is often only possible in partnership with others.''

Sharing perspectives from Unilever, he said, ''Our operations create numerous opportunities for partnership with small and medium-sized businesses -- the sort of companies which form the backbone of most successful economies, and which ultimately determine whether a country will stand on its own two feet and build sustainable prosperity.''

He said through such measures, business needs to demonstrate the case of free trade and investment. ''Unless business works with others to explain the value of open markets, economic cooperation, the transfer of know-how and flow of international trade, these things will always be at risk from short-sighted calls for protectionism, which threaten economic growth and prosperity.''

UNI

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