P. M. BRIEFING : Pepsi Foods Hits India Market

Pepsi Foods Ltd., a joint venture involving the U.S. soft drink giant, today launched its first line of products for the Indian market and announced a major export deal involving the manufacture of tomato paste.

The new products, a line of grain- and potato-based snack foods, are now on sale at 3,000 outlets in the country, a company executive told a press conference. He said the number of outlets will be increased to 10,000 within the next few weeks.

The food and beverage company also said it has landed a $4-million export order of tomato paste to be manufactured in the northern state of Punjab, where the joint venture is based.

Ramesh Vangal, the company’s managing director, said the deal will earn $5 in export earnings for each dollar spent on the import of materials required by the enterprise.