Global biosolutions company Novonesis is making a major manufacturing bet on India with a €600 million investment to expand its facility at Patalganga in Maharashtra and establish a next-generation enzyme production plant.
The investment is aimed at significantly expanding the company’s enzyme manufacturing capacity while strengthening India’s position within Novonesis’ global production network. The facility is expected to become fully operational in 2030 and will manufacture enzymes for a wide range of industries, including food and beverages, biofuels and household care.
For the food-processing sector, the investment assumes significance as manufacturers increasingly turn towards enzymes and other biosolutions to improve production efficiency, reduce waste, optimise raw-material utilisation and respond to demand for cleaner-label products.
The Patalganga facility will also strengthen Novonesis’ ability to cater to growing markets across India, the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. The company expects demand for biological solutions to increase as industries look for more sustainable manufacturing processes as well as greater supply-chain resilience and access to advanced technologies.
Krishna Mohan Puvvada, Regional President for the Middle East, India & Africa at Novonesis, said India is well positioned at the centre of several emerging markets and also offers the talent and skills required to support the company’s ambitions towards a bio-based economy.
According to the company, food processors are increasingly looking at biosolutions as a means of tackling rising raw-material costs and improving resource efficiency. Enzyme-based processing can help manufacturers extract greater value from ingredients and achieve more output from the same resources while reducing waste.
The technology already has applications across several food-processing categories. Enzymes and microorganisms, for instance, can help improve dough characteristics and shelf life in bakery, increase efficiency in brewing and support milk conversion and by-product utilisation in dairy processing.
Changing consumer expectations are another factor driving the shift. Growing interest in cleaner labels, healthier products and reduced chemical inputs is encouraging manufacturers to explore biological processing solutions. Novonesis believes its expanded Indian manufacturing presence can help customers develop cleaner products and functional foods while improving processing efficiency.
Sustainability will also form an important part of the new plant. The Patalganga facility is planned with water-recycling and energy-efficient technologies intended to reduce resource consumption and lower Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
The investment comes as India seeks to strengthen domestic biotechnology and biomanufacturing through initiatives such as the BioE3 framework, which promotes innovation and manufacturing of bio-based products, including enzymes and bio-based chemicals.
For Novonesis, the project is also intended to improve supply flexibility and bring production closer to customers in high-growth markets. Local manufacturing can potentially shorten lead times while reducing dependence on distant supply sources.
Once fully operational, the Patalganga expansion will become one of the important manufacturing nodes in Novonesis’ global enzyme production network.
With food companies under increasing pressure to produce more with fewer resources, cut waste and simultaneously meet changing consumer expectations, the €600 million investment signals the growing role that enzymes and biosolutions could play in the next phase of India’s food-processing industry.