ITC to spearhead MAARS super app to boost agri business

Kolkata: Diversified conglomerate ITC Limited will spearhead ITC MAARS super app to boost its agricultural business, an official said on Thursday. ITC CMD Sanjiv Puri told a virtual news conference that the super app will empower farmers by providing them with access to modern tools, right quality of inputs at right prices, besides market and financial linkages.

He said with farmers having fragmented holdings of land, the app will aggregate them, adding that presently the company has started with 200 farmers producer organisations (FPOs) involving 40,000 farmers.

"Our target is to touch 4000 FPOs and ten million farmers. The farmers can sell their produce to the FPOs or mandi or to a buyer like ITC", he said.

Puri said MAARS can play a transformative role in the farming community and also help ITC in scaling up its mega brand Aashirvaad.

Regarding the FMCG vertical, he said the sector is estimated to grow to Rs five lakh crore by 2030. "ITC will grow faster than the industry in this segment", he added.

To a query, Puri said there are many dimensions of synergy that ITC can leverage on and right decisions will be taken at the right time.

The company will invest Rs 300 crore at its personal care product manufacturing plant at Uluberia in West Bengal, the ITC Infotech building in New Town will be ready by end of the year.

To a query, he said listing of ITC Infotech will be done at an appropriate time.

Puri said for all practical purposes, the company had made an exit from lifestyle retailing business.