Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable Pvt. Ltd has launched Frozen Jackfruit in 300-gram Safal label retail packs across the Delhi marketplace. The Noida, Uttar Pradesh-headquartered company, which introduced the first domestically produced frozen peas in India back in 1991, is also expanding its ready-to-cook food range with the debut of dehydrated Easy Onions.
Jackfruit is sourced directly from farmers in Jharkhand forests, where the world’s largest tree-borne fruit can grow to lengths of 36 inches, with diameters of 20 inches, tipping the scales at 80 pounds. Post-harvest processing takes place at Safal’s recently inaugurated Ranchi factory, where raw material is husked, pre-cut, frozen and packaged.
“Brand Safal has always endeavored to offer products which are hygienic, nutritious and add convenience to cooking,” said Pradipta Kumar Sahoo, business head. “In the fresh fruit and vegetable sector in our country, there have been challenges of consistency in quality, availability, food safety and uniformity of pricing. Taking the lead, we are launching frozen jackfruit for the first time in India.”
The company hopes to generate revenue of Rs 10-12 crore during the first year. The plan is to boost production from 100 tons in 2017 to upwards of 1,000 tons next year, after distribution is widened.
“We believe value-added products will be the growth engine for Safal in the coming years. We have made considerable investments in setting up infrastructure and establishing a pan-India distribution channel. We are now looking to leverage the synergies to launch more products,” stated Sahoo.
Dr. T.S.R. Murali, Mother Dairy Fruit & Vegetable’s chief research and development officer, believes that the convenience factor and year-long shelf life of frozen jackfruit will contribute to a reduction of food waste as well as appeal to the busy, time-pressed middle class strata in the Delhi/New Capital Region.
“Sticks to your taste buds, not your hands,” is a catchy slogan now being repeated in an advertising campaign to promote the launch.
“Jackfruit is known for years to be very nutritional and beneficial. In our country, it is consumed both as a fruit and a vegetable. But it is often discarded from the food basket due to the hassle of cutting, peeling and removing sticky latex. Safal Frozen Jackfruit eliminates this hassle and provides a convenient source of dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals,” said Murali.
About the Company
Mother Dairy was commissioned in 1974 as a wholly owned subsidiary of India’s National Dairy Development Board (NDDB). It was an initiative under Operation Flood, the world’s biggest dairy development program launched to make India a milk sufficient nation. Over the years it has expanded into many other areas including ice cream, frozen fruits and vegetables, and the Safal brand has become a household name with market leadership and presence across the country.
Mother Dairy sources approximately 2.5 lakh tons of fruits and vegetables annually from some 10,000 farmers in 16 states. It has third-party food processing plants in Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
Additionally, Safal operates a state-of-the-art plant in Bangalore that produces around 23,000 metric tons of aseptic fruit pulp and concentrate annually. Among its customers are multinational food and beverage leaders Unilever, Nestlé, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo.
