KARACHI: Pakistan’s ITT Foods, known for its leading sauces and confectionery under the Dipitt brand, is exploring options to bypass trade barriers and export products to India with a manufacturing facility in Jeddah, the company’s chief executive officer (CEO) said recently.
Dipitt eyes $5 billion Indian market as part of its expansion plans, according ITT Foods CEO Syed Zeeshan Haider. The country, where 37 percent population lives in urban centers, offers $4.73 billion sauces and seasonings and $324 million condiments markets to Pakistan’s largest sauces brand.
Pakistan suspended trade with India in Aug. 2019 after New Delhi revoked special autonomy granted to Indian-administered Kashmir. In April this year, Islamabad announced suspending all trade with India, including to and from any third country, following an attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad. Pakistan denied involvement.
In an interview with Arab News, Haider said Dipitt, which has an office in Dubai, gets a lot of queries from India whenever it partakes in the Gulfood exhibition, and the Karachi-based food company is in advanced talks to take over a tomato manufacturing facility in Jeddah Industrial Zone 2 that was shut down in 2023 by a Saudi steel company diversifying into food production.
