The world's biggest food company Nestle (IW 1000/37) said Monday it expects to generate more than half its sales in emerging markets, including India and China, by the end of the decade.
The Switzerland-based giant said developing markets currently contribute 40% of its global sales.
"Our expectation is that by the end of the decade that (figure) will reach 50%," saud Nandu Nandkishore, Nestle zone director for Asia, Oceania, Africa and Middle East.
Nandkishore was in India ahead of the opening of Nestle's first research and development center in India, located in Manesar, a town close to Delhi.
Nestle's India operations currently contribute just a fraction of the company's global sales but Nandkishore said he was upbeat about the country's long-term potential.
As India, a nation of 1.2 billion people, becomes an increasingly urban society, domestic demand for processed foods will grow, he said.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2012
