Food processing industry has immense potential to drive economy and move up job generation
Mehran is fully means to highest quality with hygiene standard products
Interview with Mr Gul Mohammad Lot – Chairman, Mehran Group of Industries
PAGE: Tell me something about yourself and your business please:
Gul Mohammad Lot: The journey of Mehran Spice & Food Industries had started in 1975 and within a few years of its inception, the company progressed to become one of the leading spice and food company globally.
Being the Chairman, I explored new markets and established a strong distribution network across six continents. Mehran is the world leader in quality rice, equipped with the state-of-art rice plant from Germany.
Mehran Spice & Food Industries is an ISO 9001 & ISO 22000 certified leader in the quality food business. Our mission is to be a consumer-oriented company with a keen insight of food products ensuring quality, consistency and an authentic traditional taste, backup with most advanced technology to achieve optimum result.
Mehran Spice & Food Industries have been honored with many national and international awards.
PAGE: What is the current state of the food and spices sector of Pakistan in terms of profitability and growth?
Gul Mohammad Lot: There has been an immense progress in the spices industry. The advent of technology have had a great impact on the spices processing, packing and distribution, but the main thrust for survival has always revolved around quality, pricing, and distribution network.
The demand for branded spices business has experienced a gradual change over the past years. Consumers are not only aware of the health hazards of adulterated and unclean spices, sold out in the open, but also able to understand that these product has vital standing in our daily life. The use of loose spices is prohibited in most countries of the world and consumers in developed countries only use packed spices and food items.
The government has laid down certain regulations for food products which include registration of the product(s) with Pakistan Standard Quality Control Authority (PSQCA) and carrying a safety logo on the package. Mehran is also ISO & HACCP certified and the product quality is as per certified standard.
At Mehran, we aim to provide our customers with the highest quality and hygiene standards. The high standards of quality control and consistent quality check of highly qualified team of more than three dozen individuals are working in Quality Control and Research & Development Department.
Mehran is playing a vital role for the convenience of our households to make cooking hassle free & conversion from popular homemade curries to ready to use recipe packets, freshly bottled ginger garlic paste are widely used to add taste and flavor to your food.
Sauces and ketchup are used as a condiment, they add extra flavor and taste to our sandwiches, samosa, noodles, pizza, fries and everything goes perfectly with them. We are increasing product depth which is required for customer satisfaction and need.
The spices have always been in consistent demand due to typical subcontinent food making curries and a growing demand of continental and Italian food, which are incomplete without having some spices and become the integral part of ingredients. We also see in Pakistan and around the globe, the hospitality and restaurant sector are blossoming creating high demand for spices and food products eventually reaping the profitability and growth for this sector.
PAGES: What steps are the FMCGs taking to cope with the unprecedented situation caused by Covid-19, which might last till the first 6 months of 2021?
Gul Mohammad Lot: The outbreak of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) has severely affected the global and Pakistani economy. But luckily, the situation of Pakistan is better as compare to other countries regarding Covid-19. Mehran is also complying with all safety protocols and measure as regulated by the Government of Pakistan (GoP) to combat the pandemic such as:
- Social distancing among staff & labour.
- Mandatory wearing of masks.
- Hand washing/sanitizing.
- No handshake policy.
- Providing vitamins and immunity boosting tablets to staff.
In the first phase of Covid-19, a lot of people have lost their lives mostly in Europe. But , in Pakistan the situation was not that much worst. The second phase of Covid-19 has just started and it will be more lethal if we will not avoid social gatherings and unnecessary human interaction.
As far as Pakistan’s economy is concern, currently the situation is quite better. The foreign reserves are on the increasing side, the exchange rate of dollar seems to be stable, there have not been any borrowing since last four months from any lending institute, whereas GoP has paid back the hefty loans earlier acquired; such indicators are evident that if we continue to march the same way the future of Pakistan will be bright and successful.
The Covid-19 is challenging for every industry that is why it is necessary to follow respective measures/SOPs. The production area of FMCG industries is the key area where products are being manufactured. In Mehran, the products are manufactured through automated machines like sorting, polishing, grinding, packing therefore handling of food products by human being is negligible. Thus, we assure that the product of Mehran is hygienic and up to certified quality standards.
PAGE: Your views on the employment opportunities in food sector at present?
Gul Mohammad Lot: In Pakistan, food processing industry is increasingly seen as a potential source for driving the economy as it brings about synergy between the consumer, industry and agriculture. The food sector has emerged as a high-growth and high profit sector due to its immense potential for value addition and is a key contributor to generation of employment.
Despite been shifted to the technological advancement and automation, we have not reduced our human resources in order to cater the fulfillment of our orders. We have witnessed the significant growth in our sales in both local and international markets. It also feels great to see that the textile sector is growing immensely (which is up to the 60% of our export). Being an ex-chairman of the Standing Committee on Textile in Senate of Pakistan, I really appreciate the current move of the government for the textile sector, which will have its positive impact especially for the industries in Faisalabad. I just came to know that the mills and looms in Faisalabad are fully booked for next six months and currently having a shortage of around 200,000 labours.
I believe Pakistani nation is the most resilient and generous nation in the world. For instance, this recent pandemic in which we have seen the western countries were fighting for groceries whereas in Pakistan people were helping out the masses.
Here, I would like to acknowledge and appreciate the efforts of GoP from announcing the biggest relief package for the poor people to handling the situation in the best manner. The financial and monitory policies were quite encouraging and relieving for the corporate sector to handle the Covid-19 crisis, which have benefited and improved the economic indicators of the country.
On year-to-year basis our exports have increased although the pandemic is still here, our exchange rate has strengthen, foreign exchange reserves have been stable and gradually increasing, foreign remittances have shown a major improvement, large scale manufacturing have improved a lot, after many years, the current account is in surplus since last four months and State Bank have revised the GDP growth for Pakistan as the outlook has improved.
All these indicators are reflecting that the future is bright which would ultimately result in the progress of Pakistan as well as the agricultural and food sector.