Manorama Industries turns forest-floor seeds into the fats inside premium chocolate and cosmetics - a “Waste to Wealth” model that takes what would otherwise be discarded and transforms it into high-value specialty ingredients for the world’s biggest brands. Founded in 2005 by a team with deep expertise in tree-borne fats, the company began by extracting butter from Sal and Mango seeds and has since expanded into a global pioneer of Cocoa Butter Equivalents (CBEs) and exotic butters, all built on an integrated chain from tribal collectors to high-tech fractionation. Its recurring philosophy is to own the entire value stream - procurement from millions of forest gatherers, processing under one roof, and deep R&D collaboration with customers - so that it controls quality, cost and the relationship from seed to finished specialty fat. # Business segments A single integrated engine - specialty fats and butters from wild seeds - that runs from forest collection through manufacturing to B2B sales, with a cattle-feed by-product stream completing the circle. ## 1. Specialty fats and cocoa butter equivalents: the premium replacement for cocoa butter **The company makes fats that mimic, improve or replace cocoa butter in chocolate and confectionery, selling to the world’s largest food and cosmetic companies under long-term, R&D-deep partnerships.** - **Cocoa butter without the cocoa bean** - using solvent fractionation, the company isolates stearin fractions rich in POS and SOS crystals (the specific fat structures that behave like cocoa butter) from Sal, Shea, Mango, Kokum and other wild seeds, then blends them with palm mid-fraction to create Cocoa Butter Equivalents that are trans-fat-free and fully compatible with real cocoa butter. - **The world’s exclusive supplier of several CBE types** - it is the only producer globally of Mango-based CBE, Sal-based CBE and Shea-based CBE, and ranks as the number-one Sal fat manufacturer worldwide and the top Indian exporter of Sal and Mango specialty fats, with awards for highest processing and export volumes across multiple seed oils for 19 consecutive years. - **A full toolbox of fat solutions, not just one product** - the Milcoa® brand spans Cocoa Butter Equivalents with hardness matching standard cocoa butter, harder Cocoa Butter Improvers that cut cost, softer cocoa butter optimizers, filling fats for croissants and wafers, chocolate-spread fats, ice-cream coating fats, bakery shortenings and hard fats for culinary use, giving chocolate and bakery manufacturers a single source for every fat need. - **R&D as the moat** - the company’s DSIR-recognised Milcoa® Innovation & Research Center, led by a 25-year industry veteran with multiple patents, co-develops products with clients’ own R&D teams, making switching suppliers difficult because each formulation is jointly tailored and quality trumps price in customer decisions. - **Regulation and price are tailwinds** - India’s food-safety authority permits 5% CBE in chocolates, while record cocoa butter prices (touching USD 12,000 per tonne in early 2024) push chocolate makers toward cheaper CBE alternatives, expanding the addressable market. ## 2. Exotic butters for cosmetics: the luxury moisturiser base **The butter fraction from the same seeds supplies the global personal-care industry with natural emollients, sold to brands like The Body Shop and L’Oréal.** - **One seed, two industries** - each seed type yields a butter fraction (used in cosmetics) and a stearin fraction (used for CBE), so the same collection and extraction process serves both the food and beauty markets, maximising the value extracted from every seed. - **Certifications unlock premium shelves** - the company holds a wide spectrum of credentials - USDA Organic, Ecocert Cosmos Organic, Fair for Life, Kosher, Halal, RSPO and Sedex SMETA 4-Pillar - that act as entry tickets to ethically positioned global beauty brands and create barriers for less-certified competitors. ## 3. De-oiled cattle feed: the zero-waste by-product stream **After oil is extracted from the seeds, the remaining protein-rich cake is sold as cattle feed, making Manorama the largest supplier of exotic tree-borne seed cake to India’s feed industry.** - **Completing the circle** - solvent extraction pulls crude oil from Sal, Mango and Shea seeds, leaving de-oiled cake that is sold directly to the cattle-feed market, so virtually nothing from the seed is wasted and the company earns a secondary revenue stream from what would otherwise be a disposal cost. - **Largest in its niche** - the company is the biggest supplier of cattle feed derived from exotic natural tree-borne seed cakes in India, a position built on the sheer volume of seeds it already processes for its core fat business. # The forest-to-factory supply chain **A collection network spanning millions of tribal gatherers and over 18,000 village-level centres across India and West Africa turns wild seeds into a reliable industrial raw-material stream - and the company is now moving processing closer to the source.** - **Seeds gathered by hand, not farmed** - in India, Sal, Mango and other seeds fall on forest floors and are collected primarily by tribal women, then pre-cleaned and deshelled at purchase centres across seven states; in West Africa, Shea nuts are picked, boiled and deshelled by local communities before shipment to India, giving the company access to a renewable resource with “zero risk of non-availability”. - **Backward integration into Africa** - the company is setting up processing units in Burkina Faso to crush Shea nuts and Mango kernels locally, so that instead of shipping whole seeds it will import butter (roughly 45-60% of the raw material by weight), slashing freight costs and improving yield on butter content. - **One roof from seed to finished fat** - the integrated manufacturing complex in Chhattisgarh houses seed milling, solvent extraction, refining, fractionation, interesterification, deodorisation and packing in a single location, eliminating the cost and quality leakage of outsourced steps; the plant’s proximity to Visakhapatnam port (about 450-550 km) eases import of African Shea and export of finished products. - **Capacity built in deliberate steps** - fractionation capacity has grown from 15,000 tonnes per year to 47,500 tonnes through a new 25,000-tonne plant commissioned in 2024 and a debottlenecking in March 2026, with a similar debottlenecking planned for the older fractionation line next year; a new 200-tonne-per-day refinery is also under expansion. # Group structure and partners **A single listed entity in India is ring-fenced by wholly owned sourcing and trading subsidiaries across Africa, the Middle East, Latin America and Russia, with a strategic manufacturing partnership in Brazil.** - **African sourcing subsidiaries** - wholly owned companies in Ghana, Nigeria, Togo, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso and Benin secure Shea-nut procurement at origin, with a dedicated manufacturing subsidiary (Taang Kaam Industries SA) in Burkina Faso for local processing of Shea and Mango. - **Brazil manufacturing partnership** - a strategic tie-up with DEKEL Agroindústria makes Manorama the first global CBE producer to manufacture in Brazil, with the first commercial batch completed and trial samples delivered during the third quarter of FY26.