Ragi, considered to be a poor man’s diet, has entered the retail and departmental stores in Chennai in a ‘brand’ new avatar as breakfast cereals and instant dosa and idli mixes.
After conducting extensive research, the Bengaluru-based Kottaram Agro Foods has turned ragi into an exciting and tasty food under the brand name ‘Soulfull’.
Currently, 12 products – Ragi flakes made of 100 per cent ragi, Ragi fills with vanilla, strawberry and chocolate flavours, idli and dosa mixes - are available in the retail outlets. Several new products made with other millets such as Navanai and jowar would enter the market soon.
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Launching the Soulfull breakfast cereals, M.S. Swaminathan, Chairman of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation, said “It is purely a Make-in-India product and sold in India. It has rich nutrients. We must soon have more number of retail companies providing various categories of health foods such as ragi in a more palatable form.”
Talking to The Hindu , Kottaram Agro Foods Managing Director Prashant Parameswaran said: “There has been a marked awareness of healthy eating across social segments. Evidence of this can be seen in improved penetration of nutritious food products. It is here that Soulfull wants to provide a good combination of breakfast innovations by bringing ancestral grains to the forefront and make it palatable and enjoyable.”
Since its launch, ragi breakfast cereals had received good response in Bengaluru and Kerala. Mr. Prasanth wants to introduce more varieties of millets. Thus, the items in food basket would increase to 20 by the year end.
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Having invested Rs.12 crore in Karnataka, Kottaram Agro Foods wants to double its investment by 2015-16 so as to become the leading producer of health foods in the Indian market.
Kottaram Agro would be entering Mumbai and Pune soon followed by Kolkata and New Delhi next year, he said.