If you think that only jam, shampoo and oil are sold in sachets, think again. Pure honey, from the dense forests of Chamarajanagar district, has now hit the shelves in sachets.
These honey sachets are being packaged and marketed by the Soliga tribal community, who are traditional experts in collecting honey from forests. The sachets mark a story of sweet success for the poor Soligas, who have surprised everybody by embarking on technology as well as marketing strategies with ease.
Despite having collected pure honey for generations, the Soligas were not getting their money’s worth of the honey they sold to middlemen, who cornered the profits by bottling it and selling it at a higher price.
This was when the University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore changed the game for the tribal community.
It trained them on the techniques of pSrocessing, quality standards and packaging of honey under the National Agricultural Technology project. They were also given processing and packaging machinery at subsidised prices, besides being taught the basics of accounting.
As many as five groups of Soligas, comprising 18 to 20 members each, have been marketing their honey over the last year, according to UAS-B Extension Director N. Nagaraja. Though they began by selling the honey in bottles, sachets were brought in as part of an innovative marketing strategy as they are disposable and easy to manage. Each sachet of 10 ml is being sold at Rs. 5, Mr. Nagaraja said.
These sachets will be available for sale at the university’s Krishi Mela to be held in Bangalore from November 19 to 21.
