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India holds potential to build end-to-end protein ecosystem
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Wednesday, 21 October, 2026, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Nandita Vijayasimha, Bengaluru
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India has the potential to build an end-to-end protein ecosystem, from agricultural raw materials and domestic protein production to specialised ingredients, formulation, manufacturing and finished consumer products.
According to Swati Pandey, Co-Founder & CEO, Arboreal Bioinnovations,“ Our country is not starting from scratch. We have a large agricultural base and diverse raw materials, alongside strong scientific and technical capabilities, a sizeable biotechnology and food-processing ecosystem and, importantly, a large and growing domestic market that can create demand across the value chain.
Chiming on a similar note Manish Chauhan, Co-Founder & COO, Arboreal Bioinnovations said that the opportunity is to connect these existing strengths more closely. A pulse, soybean or grain has value as an agricultural commodity, but that value can increase substantially when it is converted into a protein concentrate, isolate or functional ingredient that can be used across beverages, bakery, sports nutrition, fortified foods and everyday products. Moving from raw materials to higher-value ingredients allows India to capture significantly more value from its agricultural base.
Technology can further accelerate this transition. Fermentation, microbial production, enzyme technology and newer protein platforms are opening up opportunities to develop specialised ingredients with greater consistency, functionality and scale. India is particularly well positioned to explore these technologies because of the capabilities it has built across biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food processing and scientific research, he added.
Importantly, India does not need to simply replicate the Western alternative-protein model. Our opportunity is to build a protein ecosystem around our own food system, bringing together pulses, grains, dairy and other plant-based resources with biotechnology and food science. This can enable the development of protein ingredients and products that are relevant to Indian consumption patterns, tastes and price points, said Swati.
The success of the protein ecosystem will ultimately be determined not just by how much protein India can produce, but by how effectively it can translate that protein into affordable, appealing and convenient products for everyday consumption.
This also creates an opportunity to progressively strengthen domestic capabilities where there is still dependence on imported specialised ingredients. Greater investment in in-house R&D, ingredient development, processing and manufacturing can help build more depth within the domestic supply chain while creating technologies and ingredients that are competitive globally, she added.
India's large domestic market can then act as an important testing and scaling ground. Companies can develop, refine and commercialise new protein technologies and products for Indian consumers before taking successful solutions to international markets. This creates the possibility of building not just a domestic protein industry, but an export-oriented ecosystem, said Swati and Manish.
The bigger question is therefore how much of this value chain India can own. If we can move from growing the raw material, to developing the technology, manufacturing the ingredient, formulating the product and ultimately building finished solutions, protein can become a powerful example of India moving up the value chain, said Swati and Manish.
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