Drumstick
cultivation is done on a large scale in most of the states of India. In terms
of health, the importance of drumstick is very high. Many types of multi
vitamins, proteins, amino acids are present in it. Its demand in the form of
health supplements has increased in the country for the last few years. Many
startups are making new healthy products by processing drumstick. Pramod
Pansare, who lives in Pune, Maharashtra, is also doing the same business. He
has been preparing and marketing chocolates, chikkis, khakhras, snacks with the
help of drumstick leaves and turmeric for the last two years. At present, he is
doing business of three lakh rupees every month.
Pramod,
30, belongs to a normal family. Farming has been his family background. After
completing his BTech in Food Technology in 2012, he decided to start his own
business instead of a job. For some years he did the business of dates.
However, it did not earn much and he had to stop working. Since the
responsibilities of the household were increasing, there was no other earner in
the family, so Pramod started working in a food company unwillingly. He worked
there for about 3 years. During this, he got information about different food
products. It also helped to understand his process.
Pramod
says that drumstick is beneficial for health, I already knew this, but during
work I got information that it can be used as food supplements by making
products. Most importantly, we didn't even need to go far for this. Drumstick
plants are available in abundance around us.
After
this Pramod started trialing it at his home. He dried drumstick leaves and
beans and prepared a powder. Then it was sent to the lab test, where it was
found that it contains almost all the nutrition necessary for health. He also
started using it in his own food. After a few days, he also got to see its
effect.
Pramod
says- After using it myself, I felt that it can be started at commercial level.
There are many people who need healthy food supplements and would also like to
take such things. After this, he packed drumstick powder and gave it to some
people for use.
Fewer people were using
the powder, so started making products from it
They say that some people gave a positive response after use, but most were those who took it home and kept it. They were not using it regularly. When we tried to know the reason, it came to know that due to its powder form and its test, people are less liking it. After this, Pramod decided that instead of selling it in powder form, why not convert it into a product so that it can also have brand value and more people can use it.
In
the year 2018, Pramod left his job. For about a year, he focused on market
research. What products can be made from drumstick, what will be their process?
How many people will buy them? What will be the marketing approach? He worked
on this.
After
this, from December 2018, he started making chikkis from drumstick leaves and
beans. They themselves prepared it and started selling it by putting up stalls.
Pramod says that we had kept the price of our product very low. That’s why most
of the people who used to come to our stall used to buy the product. That’s how
we did marketing for a few months.
Started business with Rs 15 lakh with
the help of investor
After
some time Pramod got an investor. He invested 15 lakh rupees and started his
work by taking an office in Pune. He registered his own company. Then gathered
necessary documents including food license and started business. For a few
months his work went well. After this, due to Corona in 2020, his work started
getting affected. After the lockdown, his work was negligible for a few months.
Pramod
says that Corona had an effect on our business, there was some loss, but there
was also an advantage that after this people started emphasizing on healthy
food supplements. This helped us a lot in expanding the scope of our business.
The demand for our products has increased.
They
say that this year when the second wave of Corona caused havoc, it was also
said that the third wave would also come and it would affect the children more.
However, there is no concrete proof of this. Still people are becoming aware
about the health of their children. They are pushing for healthy food
supplements, but one problem is that children are less interested in eating
these things. So we decided to launch a healthy chocolate.
Pramod
started working on it earlier this year and started marketing the chocolates in
May. Right now they are making chocolates in three flavours. In which dark,
white and milk flavors are included. It includes immune boosters like turmeric,
black pepper along with drumstick.
How do you do
marketing?
Pramod says that initially we used to market our products by setting up stalls. Gradually, when the demand for our product started increasing, some people started knowing, so we contacted retailers and big wholesale dealers. They started taking our product after trial. After this we took the help of social media and started promoting our product. We also created a WhatsApp group. Many people also order via phone.
According
to Pramod, every month they are making 2 tonnes of chocolates and chikkis.
Along with this, Khakhra is also prepared on a large scale. More than 100
orders are coming to them every month. Last month he also sent his product to
Sri Lanka. Soon they are going to launch their own website. Along with this,
they will also market their products on platforms like Amazon and India Mart.
Pramod
says that about 15 people work with us. Most of these are women. First of all
we dry the drumstick leaves. Then prepare its powder. After this, by mixing
sugar-free jaggery, peanuts and glucose, prepare drumstick chikki. After this,
do its quality testing and packaging work. Similarly, we have prepared a
formula to prepare chocolate. We have also got a patent for it. Mix turmeric
and black pepper with that formula and blend it. Then melt it through a
machine. After this the work of its shaping and then packaging is done.
It
is generally believed about chocolate that it harms health. Especially the
children. To avoid this, the demand for organic and homemade chocolate has
increased in recent years. There are many startups in the country, which are
making such products. These include Delhi-based Colocal, Chennai-based
Kocoatrait and Pune-based Disha Chocolate. All of them prepare and market
chocolate in an organic way.
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Dr.
Deepak Miglani, Email id.:- legalbuddy@gmail.com
