IT HAS been dubbed the biggest greenfield Indian investment in eastern Australia: Indian investors, with US backing, have embarked on a multimillion agribusiness venture in NSW that aims to become a big oilseed processor and exporter, and eventually produce biofuel.
The company, Riverina Oils & Bio Energy, believes its project will act as a catalyst for further investment from Asia's emerging giant. ''Success will encourage others to come here as well,'' said the managing director of ROBE, D.D. Saxena.
ROBE has begun building a $63 million oilseed crushing and edible oil refining plant in the Riverina at Wagga Wagga. It will process canola, safflower, cottonseed, soybean and sunflower seeds and will have an initial capacity of 170,000 tonnes a year. It is expected to be in production within a year.
Backing the venture are: the Bhoruka Group of S.N. Agarwal, a Bangalore businessman who is ROBE's chairman and chairman of India's largest trucking company, Transport Corporation of India; Ravi Uppal, who heads the power division of the Indian engineering giant Larsen & Toubro; and Lotus Ventures of California, a technology investor with a background in start-ups and bio-energy.
ROBE aims to eventually produce 75 million litres of biodiesel either from refined oil or imported palm oil. Bhoruka Group is also keen to explore the potential of biomass power, using residue from local vineyards and citrus orchards, or Queensland sugar cane. Mr Saxena, a chemical engineer and Australian citizen, has invested his own money in ROBE. He has run large food and agribusiness ventures for multinationals such as Unilever, and owns a 500-hectare table olive plantation at Griffith.
ROBE aims to export some of its 65,000 tonnes a year of refined vegetable oil to food industry customers in India, Japan, other parts of Asia, Europe and the US. It also aims to produce 105,000 tonnes a year of vegetable protein malt for use in Australia's poultry, dairy and animal feed industry.
Mr Saxena said he was passionate about ''value-adding'' to Australia's agricultural raw materials. ''This creates greater business stability and reduces the dependence on commodity prices.''
Changing the mindset of just exporting raw products was also essential for Australian business success in Asia, he said. For example, India had a 35 per cent duty on imported oil seed, but no duty on imported oilseed oil, and Indian prices for oil seed were very low. Exported oil was also lighter and thus the transport costs were lower.
''India is one of the largest importers of edible oil in the world.'' Indian consumption was 12 kilograms per head; in China it was 17 kilograms and in Australia 40 kilograms. The processing plant is expected to create 65 direct jobs in phase one, and up to 500 jobs indirectly through building and transport.
