Tapas Konar

Mr Tapas Konar is a Post Graduate in Agronomy from Calcutta University (1995) and has completed his graduate studies in Agriculture from Visva-Bharati University, Shantiniketan in 1993. He was a recipient of National Scholarship during his graduation and post graduation studies.

Mr Tapas has more than 25 years of domain expertise in Sales, Marketing, Business Development and P&L in Agricultural Inputs industry, 10 years in Chemistry Business & 15 years in Seed Business.

Mr Tapas started his career with United Phosphorus Ltd in 1995, wherein he was a Sales Representative. His next assignment was with German MNC, Bayer India Ltd as a TSM. He spearheaded the team for the promotion of “Confidor” (Imidacloprid) in BPH & GLH in paddy in West Bengal long back in 1997-98, which is still being a preferred choice of the paddy farmers as on date. He was awarded with “Master Salesman Award” in 2001 in Bayer. He worked in the capacity of TSM in different districts of South Bengal in Bayer Crop Science Ltd till 2005.

Mr Tapas joined Ankur Seeds Private Limited as Regional Sales Manager in 2005. He developed the entire business model for West Bengal, North-East, Nepal & Bangladesh. He was instrumental for setting up a sales & marketing team, C&F and distribution network, promoting Hy Vegetables and Improved Paddy Seeds in West Bengal.

Mr Tapas joined PHI Seeds Private Limited (a DuPont Company) as Regional Business Manager for West Bengal and North Eastern States in August 2008. In PHI Seeds, he established distribution in WB & NE states, C&F operations in Kolkata and Regional Office Operations at Burdwan. During his tenure the sales of Hybrid Corn and Hybrid Paddy reached a level upto 300 MT and 100 MT respectively from a zero base.

Mr Tapas joined JK Agri Genetics Ltd as a Zonal Sales Manager in June 2011. While in JK Agri Genetics Ltd, apart from fundamental Trade Business, he was responsible for setting up the institutional business in West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Chhattisgarh – contributing Rs 15.00 Crore/Annum in the ‘Top Line’. He initiated and established Bangladesh operations in 2011. His success in conceptualising market entry strategies was instrumental in his promotion as National Sales Manager at JK Agri Genetics Ltd. (JK Group of Companies), Hyderabad in 2012.

Mr Tapas has domain knowledge of Vegetable Crops, Field Crops and Cotton Crops which are directly managed by him in PAN India level in different times from 2012-2018. He also has experience of handling International Business of Bangladesh & Bhutan.

His core strength is his integrity, planning, hard work and perfect understanding & foreseeing the future need. He is an expert in conceptualizing & implementing competitive strategies for driving sales team, expanding channel network in traditional and virgin markets for achievement of revenue & profitability targets. JKAL built up a ‘Turn Around Team’ spearheading Mr Tapas to convert its low performing divisions into profitable ones and he was the key instrumental to turn around JKAL Field Crop Division into a profitable business unit within 2 years (2016-2018). The major improvements did happen basically through debtors management, inventory management, product alignment with geographies, incentivising sales team through introduction of variable income component in CTC and establishing a rigorous product screening & selection process. He managed Rs 100 Cr turnover of Field Crop Vertical alone and Company registered a sales of Rs 202 Cr with clubbing sales of all four verticals in 2017-18.

Mr Tapas joined Utkal Tubers India Private Limited, an American (Zephyr Peacock) & an European (IPM) funded company, as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) in May 2018 with a vision to develop the company as a leading quality potato seed supplier of both processing and table varieties to both domestic and international markets. Within 6 months he completely established Sales, Marketing, R&D, Production, Logistics, Quality Control and HR Teams with a skyrocketing speed. He revamped the long term sales plan and brought products which are having more demand in the market. He emphasized to develop processing potato seed market and finalized negotiations with Mc Cains and HyFun.

Mr Tapas quickly established 5 Tissue Culture Production Units in different locations to mitigate the risk and dependancy on one unit. He started potato seed cultivation in Assam in collaboration with AAU by signing a MOU with Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat. He also established an Aeroponic Production Facility at Deesa, Gujarat by taking lease land of 31 acres from Dantewada Agricultural University, Gujarat. He assessed the Pilot Project of production viability in summer in high altitude at Keylong for G0-G1 to compress the entire production cycle of G0-G4 from 4 years to 2 years! Mr Tapas initiated a joint venture with CPRI, a renowned Agri Genome Company and Utkal Tubers to come up with more purified progenies of traditional age-old potato varieties by corrections without tampering/modifying the genes. Mr Tapas was promoted as “CEO & Director” in Oct’2018 and was a Member of Board of Utkal Tubers India Private Limited.

Mr Tapas Konar joined Ramanagar Seed Farm Pvt Ltd as Chief Executive Officer in April, 2019. His key focus will be to drive the company in PAN India level which will be based on R&D with a special attention on Hybrid Seeds of Field Crops & Vegetables. Setting up a strong R&D, Product Development Team, Sales & Marketing Team, C&F operations in different states, Supply Chain Management with new QR Code Management, Finance Team & Audit Team, entering into new geographies —- are few key interest areas of Mr Tapas. He is heading the Corporate Office of the company established in 2019. Mr Tapas is also a Member of the Agricultural & Rural Development Committee, Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industries (BCC&I). He also got featured as “Top 10 Industry Leaders for 2021” by CEO Insights Group.

Mr Tapas enjoys travelling and exploring new places with his family. He also enjoys watching movies and good food!