AHMEDABAD, 06/13/2002 (Asia Intelligence Wire)- The Rs 1,165-crore AdaniWilmar Ltd, the 50:50 joint venture between Adani Exports Limited andWilmar Holdings Pte Ltd, is planning to expand its edible oil refiningcapacity at Mundra from the existing 800 metric tonnes per day (mtpd).The expansion is being done mainly in preparation for the company's forayinto the southern market, which includes the four southern states, andOrissa in 2003, Mr Gautam Adani, chairman, AWL, told newspersons here onTuesday. He, however, refused to divulge the total cost of expansion asdetails were yet to worked out.The company is also in the process of delinking and doubling its vanaspatirefining capacity from the existing 100 mtpd to enable manufacture ofvalue added products like bakery shortening and speciality fats likemargarine.The vanaspati refinery expansion is being done at a cost of Rs 12 crore,which is in addition to the Rs 100 crore that AWL has invested so far inits edible oil refinery at Mundra.Adani Wilmar's Fortune brand of edible oil has grabbed a 9.7 per centshare of the total 18 lakh tonnes per annum branded refined oil market asper the April 2002 data of AC Nielsen ORG-MARG made available by thecompany.Fortune is followed closely by Agrotech with its Sundrop brand ofsunflower oil, which has an 8.8 per cent market share. The other brands inthe segment include Marico's Sweekar and Saffola, NDDB's Dhara, amongothers.According to Angshu Mallick, general manager, sales and marketing,soyabean oil consumption had gone up from 62.9 per cent in first quarterof 2001-02 to 173 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2001-02.AWL is a player in the refined edible oil market with sunflower, soyabean,cottonseed and groundnut oils under the Fortune brand, vanaspati under theRaag brand and refined palmolein under the Jubilee brand.

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