Basmati firms set to tap ready-to-eat food mart

To cash in on the growing demand for ready-to-eat food in the country and abroad, more and more basmati-processing companies are venturing into the segment.

Amira Foods, a Delhi-based Rs 310 crore rice processing company, is planning to enter the ready-to-cook business in the second half of next year for tapping domestic as well as foreign markets.

"As a basmati player, we would like to mark our presence in this area. Nuclear families are becoming the norm and most of the urban families now have working women who do not have enough time to cook. This would emerge as a major growth factor for the ready-to-eat food business", said Karan Chanana, managing director.

KRBL Ltd, a Rs 725 crore-rice company and the market leader in basmati is also exploring the possibilities of entering the ready-to-eat food business.

"We have outsourced the production of some ready to eat items as per the specifications of our overseas customers to certain companies. This would enable us to have an estimate of the market and then make an investment", said Anil Mittal, chairman and managing director, KRBL Ltd.

LT Overseas, a Rs 375 crore company and owners of Dawat basmati brand, is all set to launch its ready-to-cook flavoured rice for the first time in the country.

V K Arora, chairman and managing director, said the company would launch rice flavoured with lemon, mushroom and tomato in September.

Kohinoor Foods (formerly Satnam Overseas) has the credit of being the first Indian basmati company to venture into the ready-to-cook segment.

"The company has also started export of frozen foods from August and plans to foray into chilled foods by 2008", said Rajiv Mangla, financial controller.

According to the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, the ready-to-eat food industry in India is estimated at about Rs 100 crore and is set to grow at a rate of 70-80 per cent for the next few years.

Other major players in this segment are ITC, MTR and Haldirams. They mainly produce basmati rice pulao, biryani, chana, dal, sweets, paneer, chicken and mutton dish and south Indian dishes. Most of these products are in high demand in prime retail chains across the globe.