August 27, 2003
Source: The Financial Express
Avestha Sets Up Food, Seed Testing Arm

HYDERABAD: Following its success in the agro-research and bioinformatics services arena, Avestha Gengraine Technologies Pvt Ltd has established a 100 per cent subsidiary, Avesthagen Quality Agriculture Services (AQUAS) Pvt Ltd, to provide food and seed purity testing services at Patancheru in Hyderabad. The move comes in the wake of the Andhra Pradesh government and the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (Icrisat) inviting Avestha Gengraine to set up a high-end laboratory in Hyderabad.

The proposed unit is also expected to become one of the Agricultural and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA)-recognised laboratories. "AQUAS will help provide high throughput services in the food and agro-research areas based on the new gene technologies. Besides this, the company also aims to develop improved crop varieties and translate them into definite intellectual property rights (IPRs)," AQUAS chief operating officer Koen Wentink told eFE.

In line with Icrisat's plans for more private-public partnerships in the biotechnology area, Avesthagen signed an agreement with Icrisat recently for joint collaborative programmes in this sector besides locating the laboratory at the Icrisat campus. However, the total investment for setting up the subsidiary has not been disclosed as the company is still raising the required funds.

AQUAS has already started detecting genetically modified organisms (GMOs) in food products. The company is offering certification services to some of the major food exporters, trading houses local and multinational food processing and seed companies, Mr Wentink said. The company has over 20 leading companies as its clientele, he added.

Incidentally, Avesthagen already has an exclusive tie-up with US-based Genetic-ID - which is the global leader in GMO detection and testing - for testing food, animal feed and meat species in India and Bangladesh. The services offered include GMO testing, aflatoxin testing, microbial testing, pesticide residue testing, water testing, antibiotic residue testing and seed purity testing.