Jacob Mannothra is an agronomist, scientist, entrepreneur and the founder of Zindia USA and Managing Director of Zindia Forestry. He is a multinational exporter of forestry products and has a presence in the United States, Africa, Latin America Oceania and India.
He began his career as a scientist and did researcher work on GIS for rubber plantations with the prestigious Space Application Centre (a department of the Indian Space Research Organisation). He was an advisor to the board of the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority of India (APEDA) and headed a global taskforce supported by the Government of India, ITC, UNCTAD and the WTO which promoted rubberwood as an eco-friendly timber for furniture.
Jacob pioneered the export of New Zealand pine and rubberwood and led the development of the Indian market for New Zealand pine. He was a key figure in the New Zealand government’s India Pine Export Network and relentlessly promoted the use of New Zealand pine in India through networking with architects, end users, and through media and national exhibitions. He developed three Indian ports (Mundra in northern India, Tuticorin in the south and Kolkata in the East) to handle the pine trade and has won multiple awards for best exporter and brand repositioning. Jacob has owned and managed about 10,000 acres of pine plantations in the Marlborough Sounds.
He was part of New Zealand Prime Minister John Key’s trade delegation to India in 2011 and 2016 and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters’ trade delegation in 2020.
