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Setting up bakery plant - Opportunities and challenges
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Thursday, 02 January, 2020, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Shital Nagre
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Due to globalisation, changes are occurring in the food culture and taste of Indian community. Because of busy schedule of the people, food eating habits are also changing. Nowadays many women are stepping out for jobs and they do not have time to cook. Because of changing food culture people want something new and innovative dishes.
With lack of time to prepare food, many are dependent on ready-to-eat food and that is the reason why the bakery industry is growing very fast. Now one can see bakeries on every street, chourah and gallies as there is demand for baked food. When one roams around super markets and malls, huge varieties of bakery products are seen. Many international and local industries producing bakery products as increasing demand for it. India is the second-largest country in the production of bakery products.
Opportunities
Bakery products like bread, biscuits, cookies, puffs and cakes are easy to buy, carry while travelling and also have good shelf life while increasing its acceptance. As the items are less perishable and because of attractive packing, people easily get attracted towards bakery products. Also those are cheap compared to other food products and fulfil the hunger and satiety both.
Large Indian population, abundant supply of raw material and low capital requirements are some strengths of the bakery segment in India. The industry has undergone a massive change majorly on account of changing perception of bakery products and evolving consumer tastes.
Automated Equipment
There has been significant improvement in baking equipment. There are most visible technologies in bakeries in India. Automatic timer in mixer allows bakers to do automatic mixing and resting of dough without supervision. Modern ovens use rotating racks, probes, microprocessor control to provide even baking and precise control of both temperature and humidity. Moreover, new technology has resulted in safe and economic bakery products.
Online Suppliers
For bakery markets are the fastest growing sales channels in India owing to the policies that encourage consumers to purchase online including secured transactions, cash on delivery options, convenient return policies, integrated and centralised customer service. Many retail cake brands in India are entering the online sales portal or partnering with companies to make their products available online.
Challenges
The industry faces challenges in term of raw material fluctuations. Raw material prices get fluctuated season wise.
Rising competition in the sector due to low capital requirements and high growth rate of sector is another impediment faced by industry.
The Indian food processing industry is regulated by several laws which govern the aspects of sanitation, licensing and other necessary permits that are required to start up and run a food industry. This is another challenge to set up industry and grow and maintain it.
Due to urbanisation, migration, Westernisation, population wants innovation and change in taste continuously. Understanding trends and implementing it in the industry is also a challenge.
GST has reduced sales of small bakers over last 10 months.
Availability of skilled human resources is important for production of quality of bakery products.
People are becoming more health-conscious and they want more healthy and nutritious food products, maida has been replaced with multi grain and product is incorporated with fibre increasing the cost of product. Fortification is also done by many industries which ultimately increases the processing cost. Also demand is for low sodium, sugar-free, gluten-free, to meet the need of consumers, it is also a new challenge.
FSSAI has proposed to limit the minimum amount of trans fats contents in vegetable oil, vegetable fat and hydrogenated vegetable oil to 2% by weight as part of its goal to make India trans fat-free by 2022. It will further lead to healthy food products.
(The author is a dietitian. She can be contacted at shitalchole@gmail.com)
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