From Argentina to India/
An interview with Raúl Pastorini

In 2018, when Raúl Pastorini was a political appointee in Argentina’s Ministry of Agriculture, he was approached by an exporter who asked for help clearing a shipment of yellow peas from Argentina to India. Raúl had extensive prior experience with India, having worked at the Indian embassy in Buenos Aires from 2008 to 2012 and later leading trade missions there as a consultant. He knew India well and was able to successfully resolve the matter.

A year later, after an election ushered in a new government, the same exporter approached him with a business proposition. They were interested in opening an office in India to facilitate their yellow pea exports and wanted him to run it. He was interested and began researching the opportunity. Poring over the trade data, one thing that stood out to him was that India was importing large volumes of pulse flours and textured protein.

“I reached out to my contacts in India and asked them to educate me on the consumption of these products,” he recalls. “They told me that pulse flours, called besan in India, are used to make chapati and roti, two kinds of bread that are consumed with practically every meal.”

He shared this information with his partners, who were already planning to add value to the pulses they were receiving at their processing plant in Santa Fe province.

 “I told them that if they were looking to sell added value pulse products, then India was their market,” he says.

Having convinced his partners, Raúl transformed his company, Namastrade, from a consulting business to an agri-trading outfit and relocated it as well as himself and his family to Mumbai.

The decision to focus more on the export of pea flour and textured protein than peas as a raw commodity is proving to prescient. This year, the government of India excluded yellow peas from its dry pea import quota. Value-added food products, however, are not subject to India’s pulse trade policies.

GPC:  Tell us a bit about your background and how you became involved in the pulse business.

Raúl: Actually, my prior experience was not in agriculture at all, but rather in international commerce. I have been involved with India long before I got involved with pulses.

My relationship with India dates back to 2008, when I was hired as a marketing officer by the Embassy of India in Buenos Aires. In that capacity, I promoted Indian goods that were exported to Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay. This included textiles, software, medicine and petroleum derivatives. A lot of Indian-made motor vehicles were exported to Uruguay and Paraguay, but not to Argentina, though for a few years, we did import Indian-made tractors. I worked at the Indian Embassy during the tenure of Ambassador Rengaraj Viswanathan, who is extremely knowledgeable about Indian-Latin American relations. Ever since that experience, I have been 100% commercially involved with India. Presently, in addition to running Namastrade, I am the Vice Director of the India Chapter at the Argentina-Asia Chamber of Commerce.

But it wasn’t until my experiences at the Ministry of Agriculture under the Macri administration that I began to get involved in the pulse trade, and then only in a tangential way. Argentina’s major ag export to India is soybean oil. In fact, soybean oil accounts for 80% of Argentina’s total exports to India.  In terms of pulses, Argentina is not a significant provider. That being said, until this year, when the government of India decided to prohibit all yellow pea imports, exports of Argentine yellow peas to India had been trending upward.

GPC: How about Namastrade? I understand it was a consulting business before it relocated to India.

Raúl: Namastrade was founded in 2012 in Argentina as a consulting firm. We offered services to Argentine companies that wanted to do business in India. That included market research, representation of companies that wanted to export or import from India, and the organizing of multi-sectorial trade missions.

Argentina and India complement each other. India has two major import needs: food and energy. And Argentina is a major ag exporter. It is a country of 40 million people that produces enough food to feed 400 million people. When I worked for the Macri administration, our motto was that Argentina ought to be the supermarket to the world. 

In 2019, when the opportunity to open an office in India came along, Namastrade was restructured and relocated to Mumbai. The company is now registered under Indian law. Today, 90% of what we do is agribusiness, and 10% is providing consulting services to small- and mid-sized Argentine companies that are interested in entering the Indian market.

GPC: You mentioned the company was restructured. How is Namastrade organized now?

Raúl: Namastrade is made up of three legs: origination, logistics and commercial.

The origination takes place mainly in Santa Fe province, where we produce yellow peas and other crops on our own farms and also on rented fields, and contract independent farmers as well. At our processing plant, we produce flour and textured protein, including the yellow pea flour and protein that we export to India. We export to other markets in the region, as well, and are in negotiations with a client in the U.S. We also produce soy flour and protein for the domestic market. We have our own brand, Solvid, that we sell to local bread and pasta makers, and to meat companies that blend it into their cold cuts.

On the logistics side, we work with a cooperative of customs brokers in the port of Rosario. It’s a very experienced team, and they handle the entire process, from the farm in Argentina to the warehouse in India.

And the third leg is the office in Mumbai, that sells exclusively to Indian brands. Our mission is to sell our own production of yellow peas and also our yellow pea flour and textured protein.

I should point out that none of this would have been possible without the support of my wife, Justina. Although she does not work directly for the company, she is as important as anyone in the company. Without her and our children, I could not have made the move to India.

GPC: What was the biggest cultural difference you encountered in India?

Raúl: There are many challenges to consider when you relocate your family to such a radically different country. I’ve travelled to India once or twice a year since 2008, so I am used to the country’s idiosyncrasies. The incredibly congested traffic and the torrential monsoon rains. Justina, though, had only been here once before in her life, and our children had never visited before. Each of us had to adapt in our own ways.

For starters, there is the food. Argentines are not used to eating spicy food and in India even the dessert is spicy! Justina is a vegetarian and she loves spicy food, so she is thrilled with it. But it is not for me. Like most Argentines, I’m a meat eater, but of course cows are sacred here. So that is something I miss dearly.

Another challenge is the language. My wife and I speak English well, but our children do not, so that was the biggest cultural adaptation for them.

And with respect to doing business here, I find the people of India to be very friendly. Usually, before talking business, they like to talk about family. They also enjoy showing you around their city and taking you out for lunch or dinner before getting down to business. But when the time comes to make a deal, it is remarkable how much they bargain on the price. Tremendous!

And of course, there is the challenge of government-imposed trade barriers. Our business is quite volatile, and it doesn’t help to have the government suddenly apply tariffs, quota restrictions and other barriers to trade.

GPC: Could you tell us what some of the end uses are for the pea flour and textured protein that you sell in India?

Raúl: Our pulse by-products are mainly sold for human consumption. Pulse flours here are called besan and are used to make chapatis and rotis, a sort of pancake, as well as many other dishes. They also use the pea flour to make pasta and even ice cream. It is also blended with meat, mainly poultry.

As for the textured protein, people have been consuming it even before the Covid-19 pandemic. It is worth mentioning that due to the virus, a lot more people all over the world are shifting from animal to plant protein. In India, they are more familiar with soybean than yellow pea textured protein, but our product can be used in many ways. For example, in sports protein shakes, to make samosas or added to rice or noodles. They also eat the protein chunks straight out of the package, like a snack.

GPC: Do you see opportunities for other pulse exports to India besides peas?

Raúl: Yes, there are plenty of opportunities. India consumes a large variety of pulses, many of which are not yet produced in Argentina, like pigeon peas. The public sector needs to help the private sector diversify Argentina’s pulse production in order to supply a large market like India. Those that are interested in doing so need to open these new markets and start producing. There is no time to lose.

But one issue that needs to be addressed in Argentina is the question of a stable price for pulse crops, like for cereals and oilseeds. Growers want to know who is going to buy their yellow peas. We contract growers to produce yellow peas for us. Some growers are excited with what we are doing and onboard with the project, but convincing new growers to sign on is difficult.

Hopefully, with the opening of the market in China we will see prices begin to become standardized.  

GPC: In a previous article, a source stated that peas are the pulse with the greatest potential for growth in Argentina because there is so much room for expansion.

Raúl: Yes. The potential is there but first we need to make farmers aware of the benefits of growing peas. First, there is the importance of seeding a cover crop during the winter. Cover crops help keep moisture in the ground and the fields free of weeds. Then we need to educate growers about the benefits of growing peas before soybeans. Because peas fix nitrogen into the soil and use relatively little water, they boost the yields of the crop that follows.

Peas, therefore, offer Argentine growers both agronomic and commercial benefits.

GPC: How do you see India’s pursuit of pulse self-sufficiency?

Raúl: My humble opinion, after having read and listened to some Indian experts, is that the country will struggle to attain self-sufficiency not only with pulses, but with edible oils as well. On average, 15 million people are born every year in India. Because the country lacks the post-harvest infrastructure, it remains heavily dependent on food imports to feed this growing population. You also have to consider that India’s crop production is highly dependent on the monsoon. If it is a dry season, they are going to have to import food crops.

GPC: How do you envision the future of India-Latin America relations?

Raúl: The future looks very good. I think we can build on the present. Currently, India enjoys preferred trade status with the nations of Mercosur, but this agreement is very limited. It encompasses only 902 products and for the most part Latin American countries export mainly raw materials to India and import value added products.

Argentina can build on this by diversifying its exports and beginning to export value added products to India. In the case of pulses, as I mentioned before, India consumes a great variety of different types, but Argentina produces only a few. The first thing we need to do is open the Argentine market in order to import seed from India. And then we need to open the India market in order to export the pulses we produce with that seed back to India.

GPC: What are Namastrade’s plans for the future?

Raúl: The goal is to establish Namastrade as the leading Latin American supplier of pea flour and pea textured protein to the Indian market. We are looking to increase our exports of these two products, and the first step is to expand the growing area in Argentina. Down the road we also plan to begin producing yellow pea protein isolates for the Indian market.

We have the will and the know-how. We only need clear rules from the Indian market.