Calcutta, Dec. 21: Rallis, the agrochemical company of the Tatas, is aiming to become No. 1 in the domestic market and double export revenues.

It is setting up two plants at a combined investment of Rs 200 crore and scouting for acquisitions at home and abroad to give a fillip to the seeds and speciality chemical businesses.

Rallis was the market leader in agrochemicals before losing out to Bayer following the latter’s merger with Aventis.

“We are exploring various ways – boosting domestic sales, increasing exports, improving seeds portfolio and venturing into speciality chemicals to get back the leadership position,” Veeramani Shankar, chief executive officer of Rallis India, said here today.

Shankar and R. Gopalakrishnan, chairman of Rallis and executive director on the board of Tata Sons, were here to launch the insecticide, Takumi, used against caterpillars.

Gopalakrishnan said the Indian agrochemical market is set to go up manifold. The consumption is one-eighth of the French market and half of the Pakistani market.

Shankar said the two new plants would be in Jammu and at Dahej, Gujarat.

Exports now comprise 22 per cent of Rallis’s earnings, which the company wants to push up to at least 35-40 per cent.

In the second quarter, the company earned revenues of Rs 334.4 crore, an increase of 26 per cent from the corresponding period of the previous year. Profit before tax during this period is Rs 120.51 crore, while the profit before tax from operations stood at Rs 37.88 crore.

For the first half of 2007-08, the turnover from operations was Rs 403.45 crore and profit before tax, Rs 122.55 crore.