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A standard matter of dialogue in my home each time one among us falls sick revolves round our unhealthy diets. The dialog tends to escalate with my mom passionately emphasising how diets up to now had been enriched with superfoods like jowar, bajra, and ragi.
True sufficient, millets are actually being recognised as superfoods worldwide. In 2023, the Indian authorities designated it because the “Yr of Millets” to underscore their quite a few advantages.
Nevertheless, a problem arises because of the restricted availability of devoted shops providing a wide range of millets. “In our fast-paced world, what most of us want is ready-to-use recipes, and never many producers provide a variety of millet choices. Recognising this hole, I based my very own millet startup,” says Sai Krishna Popuri, the founding father of Well being Sutra, as shared with The Higher India.
Sai, the entrepreneur behind a millet-based model, presents a various vary of millet merchandise by means of his startup. From Jowar Flakes to Millet Muesli and Millet Idli Rawa pre-mix, the model goals to seamlessly combine this superfood into your each day food regimen. With hundreds of merchandise bought, the model has achieved a powerful annual income of Rs 2.5 crores.
‘For a wholesome and lengthy life’
After finishing his engineering from the Indian Institute of Know-how in Delhi, Sai determined to take a company job within the training sector.
“Whereas I used to be working a job, I wished to get into ventureship. I had all the time dreamt of being an entrepreneur. I used to be solely ready for the fitting thought to come back alongside for me to take the leap,” he shares.
Sai remembers that whereas he was in school, he wished to arrange his personal enterprise and had a few concepts too. “Whereas there have been a variety of concepts, I wished to do one thing that stood out and was benefitting the society too,” he says.
Meals startups have all the time been an space of curiosity for Sai. “Meals tech has all the time been attention-grabbing to me. Earlier than Well being Sutra, I used to be engaged on an Indo-Chinese language startup in Hyderabad,” he says.
“Across the similar time, my father was recognized with diabetes. The physician advisable varied options resembling wheat, oats, or quinoa for his food regimen. I couldn’t assist however surprise – oats are fantastic, however quinoa is imported from South America. Why go for one thing from midway internationally when we’ve equally good choices proper right here?” he provides.
Wanting to search out options in India, he went in search of choices. He met a relative who labored within the meals science division at a college in Andhra Pradesh. “She was passionately discussing millets and the way they’re poised to grow to be the subsequent huge factor. Millets, being deeply rooted in our land, boast indigenous qualities, robustness, and drought resistance, making them a extremely helpful alternative,” he says.
On additional analysis, Sai realised the rationale why the superfood was not as in style as others.
“The processing expertise for wheat, rice, and corn has superior considerably. Nevertheless, the identical can’t be stated for millets. The restricted progress in milling and additional processing of millets creates a scenario the place presenting millets to customers in a contemporary context, or providing them a up to date perspective on their conventional meals and roots, turns into difficult,” he says.
To vary the perspective in direction of millet and to make it extra simply accessible to customers, Sai began his analysis and growth in 2013.
“Our grandmas had been proper to ask us to incorporate millets in our diets as they’re historically thought-about to be wholesome,” he says.
By 2014, he was prepared together with his first product. “We launched jowar porridge underneath our model Well being Sutra and it bought a terrific response,” he remembers.
Since its launch, the corporate has skilled vital development, introducing a various vary of merchandise. These embrace cereal flakes resembling Jowar Flakes, Ragi Flakes, and Barley Flakes, in addition to seven various kinds of rava for idli and upma, and biscuits constructed from ragi and jowar.
Making millets out there to all
The model has a superb buyer base in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Recalling individuals’s preliminary response, Sai says, “Throughout that point, my purpose was to supply a substitute for masala oats. The response was constructive, particularly from those that tried it a few times – they loved the style. Phrase unfold and extra individuals started to offer it a attempt.”
He provides, “Curiously, even as we speak, corporations like Soulful and probably now Slurp Farm, no main participant has emerged on this area. Consequently, individuals nonetheless don’t have many choices to discover.”
The model now boasts an annual income of two.5 crores and has a crew of 9 individuals.
Whereas these numbers sign success, Sai emphasised the persistence required to succeed in this level. “It’s been a sluggish burn for us; the trade remains to be nascent, and individuals are solely now starting to open up. Again in 2013, once I began my analysis, there have been no avenues out there. Institutes devoted to this trigger had been scarce, and the expertise to do easy issues like making uttapam from jowar was not readily accessible,” he explains.
“Nevertheless,” he continues, “Occasions have modified considerably since then. Now, we’ve devoted institutes for analysis, and extra people are investing in millet-based startups.”
The worldwide 12 months initiative for millets final 12 months has undoubtedly made a constructive affect.
“Nevertheless, I consider it’s nonetheless within the consciousness stage quite than a degree the place a behavior has been totally fashioned. Persons are making an attempt, and experimenting, nevertheless it hasn’t grow to be a each day behavior like consuming rice or chapati. That, I consider, will take some extra time,” he says.
The merchandise by Well being Sutra are at present out there in shut to three,000 supermarkets in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Additionally they ship them country-wide through Amazon.
It had been some time since P Lalitha discovered the advantages of millet however was in search of concepts to include it into her child’s food regimen. “I’ve been utilizing Well being Sutra’s Millet Idly Rawa for years now, it tastes so good that my children like to eat idli. I typically make sweets with this rawa. I all the time desire to have my children with zero maida snacks and the Well being Sutra biscuits turn out to be useful,” she says.
The merchandise are nice and wholesome. They’ve zero components and sugar which makes them her go-to alternative.
As for the long run, Sai plans to increase his merchandise to make it extra child-friendly.
“Presently, millet merchandise haven’t made vital inroads into the children’ phase, notably in high-volume children’ meals classes, which is an space we’re eager on exploring additional. Our focus is on making millets extra digestible, palatable, and accessible at a extra handy worth level. Presently, millet merchandise are usually a bit dearer in comparison with their standard counterparts,” he says.
(Edited by Padmashree Pande)
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