The vegetable products of multinational companies constantly face the risk of counterfeit in a vast market of 120 million in Pakistan.
The problem is not only a threat to the profitability and image of the multinationals, but is also a great loss of revenue to the government.
This observation was made in a seminar on "How Nestle manages business and brands", organised by the Management Association of Pakistan (MAP).
The seminar was addressed by Neslte Milkpak Managing Director Friedrich G. Mahler.
He said Nestle was the largest food company in the world with 500 factories and 9,000 brands, employing over 250,000 people around the globe.
A legal expert of Nestle told the participants that the risk of counterfeit was greater in water products due to the weaker laws and non-compliance of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) vigorously.
He said that the Overseas Chamber of Investors, which represented multi-nationals, continuously pursued the government to enforce anti-counterfeit laws but to no avail.
"Individual companies, however, carry out their vigilance of the markets on sales of spurious and sub-standard water products and organise raids on the imitators premises," he said.
Mahler, in his keynote address, said that the total Nestle sales in 2002 were 57.6 billion dollars.
"The world food market is worth 3.5 trillion dollars," he said, adding Nestle enjoyed over 32 percent share of the world market in Europe and America each and 16.7 percent in rest of the continents.
The famous Nestle brands are Nescafe, Maggi, Pure Life, Milkpak, Buitoni, Purina, Nido and Milo.
He said that Pure Life and Milkpak brands were solely of Pakistan market origin, introduced and developed locally. These were now exported to other countries, he added. Narrating the success story of Milkpak, Mahler said that Nestle had made arrangements to collect fresh milk directly from over 13,500 farmers in 926 villages around Lahore.
The milk, after collection, was sent to the chilling units and then to two factories near Lahore for processing, he added.
The Nestle provided free advisory service to the farmers for the development of their livestock, he said.
In response to a query, Mahler acknowledged that among the series of successful brands of the company, Nestea was the only one, which did not make inroads in the local market. Nestle ran nine product technology development centres and eight research development centres around the world, he added.
The nestle official did not agree to a proposal that in view of the success of two brands in Pakistan market, the company should set up a product development centre in the country, and said that this would increase the cost of the product to the disadvantage of the consumers.
Earlier, Swiss Consul General Julius Anderegg briefed the audience on substantial Swiss investment in Pakistan in the fields of pharmaceuticals, food, aviation and inspection of imports and exports and watches.
MAP President Jawaid Iqbal welcomed the guests at the seminar.