Thursday, September 22 2005 19:56 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Biotech firm Avesthagen today (Sept 22, 2005) announced the launch of its fully owned subsidiary Avesta Good Earth Foods Pvt Ltd (AGEF), to deliver Health and Wellness Foods in the short-term and Functional Foods as part of its long term strategy.

Adding to existing range of cereals and nutritious crackers, the company announced the launch of its new two new flavours Cardamom Flavoured Muesli, the first pairing of Indian cardom with cereal of any kind in the world and Chocolate Flavoured Muesli.

"With this we are looking at expanding the product base of nutritious foods and aiming to be market leader in the health and wellness segment", Koen Wentink, Chief Logistics Officer, Avesthagen told reporters.

Avestha Good Earth Foods will be launching a range of products, focusing on enhancing energy levels while providing enhanced nutrition and provide the added convenience of mobility to snacking habits of health-conscious consumers.

Additionally, Avesthagen through its "Food For Medicine" programme, has been working on isolating and validating medicinal plant-based bioactives against degenerative conditions, Dhruvdev Vyas, Senior Manager R and D and Product Development said.

AGEF, as part of its long-term plan will also be bringing to the market the first generation of Functional Foods consisting of scientifically validated nutritional bioactives, affective in addressing some of the health-related problems like diabetes and high cholesterol levels, he said.

In the global health cereal market of USD 16.6 billion, Asia's share is 1.5 per cent (240 million) and "India's share is miniscule. It is still a nascent market as far as India is concerned and we see tremendous growth opportunities in it", Dhruv Dayal, Senior Manager, Marketing and Operations AGEF said.

The company will be exploring export opportunities in the Middle East, South-Asia and also Europe and the US for functional foods", Koen Wentink said.

For scaling up of operations "AGEF would look at outsourcing options in manufacturing", he said.

AGEF will soon be expanding its distribution network in 10 metros and mini-metros, Dayal said.

Avesthagen acquired Bangalore-based Good Earth Foods in March 2005.