Care-Keralam to build ‘Kerala Brand of Ayurveda Products’ for international markets: Dr Hareendran Nair
Care-Keralam, the Ayush cluster in Kerala, will shortly fine-tune its strategies to build ‘Kerala Brand of Ayurveda Products’ for international marketing and to increase the quantity of exports of traditional and herbal drugs from Kerala to global markets.
Similarly, the cluster will create a ‘Kerala Label’ for Ayurveda drugs manufactured by small-scale manufacturers (SMEs) in the state to support them market in states outside the country.
The company will encourage the SMEs to develop their own brand strategies to project a brand culture of Kerala ayurvedic products and highlight their products to the global markets. The efforts are progressing and the results will reflect very soon, according to Dr. J Hareendran Nair, CMD of the Ayush cluster.
In an interview with Pharmabiz, he said the Ayush cluster has not deviated from its original track, but it is implementing strongly the projects envisioned by the consortium members when the cluster was formed way back in 2012 with the support of central and state governments. The company is fully committed to take forward the vision of the Union Ayush Ministry in establishing a cluster of manufacturing units. He said he is personally taking interest to work on its strategies to promote the small-scale manufacturers and resource centres of raw-drugs.
“Several new projects are in the pipeline to achieve the goal and once they are completed, Kerala Ayurveda will have a stamp of its own in foreign markets. The manufacturers need a strong and consistent brand culture to capture foreign markets for which Care-Keralam will provide all possible support. All the 140 companies in the consortium are still there and nobody has left the cluster which is a public limited company. Recently, marketing of heavy metal-free raw material trading has been started, and in the same way as a project to support the drug manufacturers, Care-Keralam has started to buy their finished products to market in other states in India. The cluster has an NABL accredited laboratory and all other facilities to conduct all tests, about which the cluster will chalk out a sensitization program among manufacturers to utilize these facilities and among those companies who have no sophisticated laboratories. What was the vision of the government while designing the cluster project will be implemented and will not deviate from it,” said Dr. Hareendran Nair.
As regards charges for QA and QC studies, the CMD said the shareholders of the company have special discounts for all the laboratory tests. The Ayurveda small-scale manufacturers do also get benefits in conducting stability studies, contamination studies, heavy metal studies, animal studies, toxicity studies etc in Care-Keralam while comparing with laboratories outside. More schemes will be introduced very soon to help the small industries. According to him, it is too difficult for the small manufacturers to meet the huge expenses for all the tests to be carried out to bring out a product. Today a lot of tests are required in the production of an Ayurveda drug for international marketing.
He said Care-Keralam is planning to create a ‘Kerala Label’ for Ayurveda products with an intention to help small scale units. The products of the SMEs will be procured by the cluster and market them outside Kerala. “There is an increasing demand for Kerala Ayurveda products in markets outside Kerala, especially in north India. Taking advantage of this, and to help the poor manufacturers, Care-Keralam will buy the products from small companies and market them in other states. Similarly, the cluster will undertake marketing companies’ contracts to manufacture their products and support them in marketing also,” he said.
When Care-Keralam was in financial distress three years ago and struggling, Dr. Hareendran Nair came forward to rescue the cluster from all its financial liabilities and rehabilitate the company by adopting some revival measures. His manufacturing company, Pankaja Kasthuri Herbals India Pvt Ltd acquired all the shares of the Ayush cluster and made it as its subsidiary unit. But, the CMD said Care-Kerala is still working as a public limited company with 140 shareholders and it will not deviate from its basic structure and pattern.
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