Ready-to-eat makers focus on exports

With the Indian consumer traditionally being resistant to substituting home cooked foods with alternatives available in the markets, manufacturers of ready-to-eat foods are ensuring that their focus remains on the export markets. So, even as they try and grow the domestic market as well, exports are currently contributing up to 70 per cent of their total sales.

Amit Chilal, partner, Parampara Foods, said, "Within India, this concept (ready food, not cooked at home) has mainly caught on in the metros, and that too not to a very large extent. So, exports will continue to remain the focus area for us."

At present, the ratio between exports and domestic sales stands at 70:30 for the company.

MTR Foods, one of the largest and most established players in the ready-to-eat meals segment, is also slightly skewed towards exports, said its chairman Sadananda Maiya. The reason for this, according Maiya, is that the Indian consumers will take a few more years to really adjust to the concept of ready food in a packet.

The countries MTR Foods exports to include Canada, the US, Japan and Australia, and Maiya is looking at adding others such as China to this list in the near future.

While eyeing the export markets, MTR is clear about its priority to target the locals in those countries rather than the Indians living there as the foreign citizens, being open to and more forthcoming in trying out any new or trendy products like ready-to-eat foods, constitute a larger market.

A recent Confederation of Indian Industry report pointed out that though the opportunities for speciality ready-to-eat meals are emerging, it is happening in a very small way. Absence of freshness in such food "� considered a critical aspect for the Indian consumer, has been one of the dampers, said the report.

The ready-to-eat segment, however, has been identified as one among the those holding the maximum potential for growth, and the players in the segment are optimistic about future prospects. ITC, for one, has two brands "� the high-end 'Kitchens of India' and the Aashirwaad range "� sees the market touching Rs 200 crore by the end of 2005.