Demand for Organic Food in India

Though restricted to the major metropolitan cities for the time being, the demand for organic food in India is rapidly growing. Some of the major reasons for this growth are the easy availability of these products in retail outlets and the fact that the middle class consumer has more money to spend. There is also a growing awareness about how organic food is good for the health of the consumers. Parents are increasingly getting concerned about the negative effects that junk food and poor diet is having on the health of their children, hence the rapid switch to organic food.

According to a survey, the greatest demand for organic products comes from Mumbai. This is followed by the National Capital Region. Tier Two cities like Indore, Chandigarh and Ahmadabad are showing a great deal of demand for these products as well. Organic food products can be divided into different categories like fruits, vegetables, milk and juices. Among all the categories, organic vegetables were the most regularly purchased items by Indian customers.

The demand for organic food products has allowed many people to find ways to run a profitable business. In fact it is not just Indians who run organic food companies, even foreigners have started successful ventures in this industry. Yoav Lev is one such entrepreneur who came from Israel as a young backpacker and stayed on to find the hugely successful venture Organic India. Another interesting story is that of Raj Seelam, an IIM graduate who gave up the multimillion dollar salaries of the corporate world to start his own organic food processing business. Both entrepreneurs along with many others in this industry have become hugely successful and have seen their business grow exponentially.

There is also a noticeable shift in the marketing strategies of businesses. There was a time when most of their revenues were coming from exports. They were catering mainly to markets in Western countries. But the bulk of earnings for many companies are now derived from the local Indian market. There was a time when producers were finding it difficult to get shops to store their products. But that trend has changed. If one were to walk into any well known supermarket chain in India they would find a wide variety of organic food products stocked on the shelves. With the health benefits of organic food items well publicised these days, the demand for such products is only going to grow.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *