It gives me great pleasure to welcome Year 2012 and wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Year. May the New Year bring plenty of happiness, prosperity and good health to you and your family members. On this occasion, I would like to share with you that the year 2012 has been declared as International Year of Cooperatives by the United Nations and we welcome this declaration.
Friends, with your constant contribution, IFFCO was able to produce about 65 lakh tonne of fertilisers during the financial year 2011-12 (till December 2011) with sales to the tune of 85 lakh tonne of fertilisers. Both the parameters are marginally lower as compared to previous year’s achievements. There has been steep rise in the prices of raw materials, intermediaries and finished fertilisers. Indian rupee has depreciated over 20% against the US dollar since August this year. This has caused severe effect on us. This kind of devaluation has been unprecedented like a ‘bolt from blue’ for the industry. We are trying to mitigate its serious impact on our profit and profitability. However, our Board of Directors decided not to pass on the entire burden of this price rise to the farmers and the farming community even at the cost of profit. I must thank the Board that they have kept the true spirit of IFFCO in mind even under most adverse circumstances.
Continuing its tradition of winning accolades, IFFCO won many laurels and awards during 2011 also for its glorious performance. In the recent edition of Fortune India 50 ranking of Indian Companies, IFFCO re-bagged the 1st position in the Fertiliser and Agro chemical category and 37th position in the overall ranking for the year 2011 across all the sectors in India. What is more encouraging is that IFFCO is the only cooperative society amongst top 50 Indian companies in this ranking.
Besides this, our Kalol, Phulpur, Aonla and Paradeep Units bagged FAI Awards for their excellent performance in various fields. IKSL received ‘Coffey International Award’. ‘Best Jury Award for ICT enabled Agriculture Initiative’ and ‘SKOCH Digital Inclusion Award 2011 ‘for its valuable contributions rendered to the farming society. Our farm forestry arm IFFDC also won ‘The Times of India Social Impact Award’ for its excellent performance in the field of improving for the year 2011 by National Institute of Personal Management and AIMA. All our Associates and Joint Ventures are performing well and New Projects of the Society are on the right track.
The year 2011 was a year of fortunes and challenges. On the one hand, IFFCO made new strides in many areas of its operation while on the other hand, we experienced irreparable losses. First we lost our beloved Chairman, a great visionary, Kisano ke Massiah Shri Surinder Kumar Jakhar, who was a guiding force behind all activities of IFFCO for many years. He will be dearly missed in person and spirit. We also lostShriN.KBharadwaj – President & Chairman of Coordinates Committee of IFFCO Employees Union, who was a front line solider of IFFCO’s dedicated work force. We pay our rich tribute to them for the services the rendered to the Society.
I am confident that the Society will achieve even more excellence in all fields in the years to come with dedication, devotion and cooperation of you all. I once again wish you and your family a very happy, prosperous and joyful New Year – 2012.
– Shri U S Awasthi