Agra delicacy turns sugar-free

It's a delicacy that slipped out of the royal kitchen of Emperor Shah Jahan more than 350 years ago. And it has again emerged out of history. For the first time, petha, the sugar-brewed delight whose reputation sometimes exceeds that of the Taj Mahal itself, has turned "sugar-free".

Talking to Business Standard, Subhash Goyal, the owner of Pancchi Petha, one of the largest petha brands of Agra, said Agra's petha was a world-renowned delicacy manufactured by more than 700 cottage units in the Noori Gate area of the town, but being essentially a sugar-boiled confectionary made out of gourd, it was considered a forbidden fruit for the diabetics.

Keeping this problem in mind, the company has recently introduced "sugar-free" variants of its popular petha varieties "Angoori" and "Kesar".

Elaborating on this recent innovation in the petha market, Subhash Goyal, who is also a diabetic, said that the sugar-free petha was extremely a low-calorie product that contained all the natural therapeutic potential of the original preparation, making it a much-sought-after product among the large population of diabetics in Agra as well as other states of the country.

He said the 100-year-old family-run Pancchi group, which had recently faced a separation, was now slowly recovering, and besides seven outlets in Agra alone, selling more than 600 kg of petha every day, it had also opened outlets, one each in Delhi, Ghaziabad, and Lucknow. Now, he said, the plan was to open outlets Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore.

Besides, the company was also contemplating giving out jobs on franchise in other cities. He said the brand was also being exported to the UK and Canada to serve the NRI population.

According to Goyal, the petha industry of Agra was worth over Rs 600 crore annually, consuming more than 300 trucks of gourds every day. These gourds, after processing, were reduced to less than 40 per cent of their original weight, making it a highly labour-intensive industry, while the profits were dipping each year.

On top of that, the sales tax imposed by the UP government is hampering growth.

The introduction of variants of the original run-of-the-mill petha is the only way it can survive, and this was the only reason the Panchhi group has decided to launch one new variant of Petha each year and the "sugar-free petha" was this year's novelty.

Notably, the petha industry of Agra, which employs several thousand people of this town, has also given rise to a serious waste-management problem for the town, which is already facing difficulty in managing its almost 100 years old sewage system. The Agra administration has now decided to move the Petha industry to the outskirts of Agra to counter this problem.

Also, a project of generating energy from this bio-waste has been introduced in the town by U S Agency for International Development (USAID) under its Clean Technology Initiative (CTI) Project. The Agency has already set up a demonstration plant to generate gas from "Petha waste".

The demo plant is now successfully generating methane gas from the petha waste which is being used as a source of fuel and replacing coal and gas for petha making.

This is also being seen by the Agra administration as a solution to get rid of about 30 to 35 Tonnes of waste every day that is generated by these Petha units in the heart of the city.