: Self-Made Punjab Agripreneur Supplies Corn to Multinationals; Earns Rs 7 Cr Turnover #IndiaNEWS #Agriculture Hailing from Batala in Punjab, Jagmohan Singh Nagi had a keen interest in agriculture and

Self-Made Punjab Agripreneur Supplies Corn to Multinationals; Earns Rs 7 Cr Turnover #IndiaNEWS #Agriculture
Hailing from Batala in Punjab, Jagmohan Singh Nagi had a keen interest in agriculture and the food business from a young age. His father used to do flour mill repair work and wanted his son to work in the food industry.

Kulwant Nutrition, which started with one plant and maize crops in 1989, has grown into a company with an annual turnover of more than Rs 7 crore.

Jagmohan (63) is doing contract farming on 300 acres of land and grows crops like corn, mustard and wheat, and vegetables like carrot, cauliflower, tomato and beetroot.

He works with 300 farmers in Punjab and Himachal Pradesh and supplies produce to companies like PepsiCo, Kelloggs, and Dominos Pizza. He also exports his produce to England, New Zealand, Dubai and Hong Kong.

Creating a corn empire

Jagmohan Singh Nagi with his canned goods

“Before partition, my family used to stay in Karachi. My father then moved to Mumbai and finally settled in Punjab. At that time, in spite of the demand, there were very few people doing flour mill repair work. So, my father took it up,??? says the agripreneur.

Jagmohan’s father wanted him to work in the food business. But, as there were no courses in Punjab then, he studied food cereal milling and engineering at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom.

After returning to India, he started an agribusiness, Kulwant Nutrition. The start was bumpy as he wasn’t able to get a good maize crop.

Jagmohan Singh Nagi trains agriculture students

“I started a plant but we didn’t have a good maize crop in Punjab then. So I started ordering corn from Himachal Pradesh but the cost of transportation was very high. To get a good crop, we tied up with Punjab agricultural university through the university-industry link. The university would give farmers good quality seeds, and I would buy the produce from these farmers,??? says the 63-year-old.

His first customer was Kelloggs.

Wanting to grow the crop himself, Jagmohan started contract farming in 1991 and slowly started growing it all by himself.

In 1992, he started working with PepsiCo and supplied corn for their snack Kurkure. He says that he had a demand for almost 1000 tons of corn per month. In 1994, he started supplying Dominos Pizza too. In 2013, he ventured into the canned foods business and started growing other vegetables too.

Pivoting his business in COVID

Jagmohan Singh Nagi giving a lecture

While his business was booming, the pandemic brought a host of challenges to this agripreneur.

“Covid really affected the supply chain. What I noticed was that while many factories and businesses shut down, grocery stores continued to run as they came under essential services.