Retail giants drive pulse units for 'quality' revamp

Units opt for sophistication and automation to reap rich dividends

Corporate retail giants such as Big Bazaar, Reliance and Bharti Walmart seem to have generated a wave of transformation in the traditional pulse processing industry with more and more processing units opting for sophisticated technology to match the higher quality and health safety standards set by the organised players.

The processing units across the country have started infusing additional capital required for the technology upgradation. "The pulse processing industry in different parts of the country has started technological upgradation by infusing additional investments of around Rs 1.5 crore per unit for sophisticated machinery. Now there are modern technology including colour sorting technology available from global suppliers. This enhances the quality standards to match with those set by big retail players like Reliance and Big Bazaar," said Bhaskarbhai Patel, president, Vasad Dal Utpadak Mandal, an association of about 50 units operational in central Gujarat region with an annual pulse processing of about one lakh tonnes of tur (pegion pea). Patel is also the owner of the popular Angoor tur dal (pegion pea) brand.

Even as Bharti Walmart has not yet started operations in a big way in India, the pulse industry has been regularly supplying various quality of the commodity to other players like Future Group and Reliance Retail. "There are serious concerns about quality standards in food commodities. However, they are not compulsory for the suppliers in our country. But two basic criteria have been set for choosing a supplier, including compliance to the production specifications of the commodity and the state of the factory or unit. There are some measures which organised retailers in India are not following. These include making factory certification mandatory for the suppliers, compliance to the health measures, CSR audits to check child labour issues etc. But with more and more international collaborations taking place, they will also start following the suite in coming future," said K Radhakrishnan, owner of Aligned Business Partners and president, Future Freshfoods Limited - a joint venture with Future Group.

The multinational agri-technology providers like Buhler India and Satake India are betting big on this opportunity as large number of processing units have turned to modern technology. "The demand for superior technology is rapidly rising not only from pulses industry, but processors in other commodities from across the country are also on a revamp mode. This shows that the processors have started recognising the importance of food safety and quality," said Prasad Jaripatke, head of West & Central region, Buhler India.

According to Jaripatke, the shift to automation and sophistication was imminent for the pulse processors as the industry was faced with issues like labour shortage, reduced utilisation and lower yield. "Upgradation to sophisticated technology increases the yield by about 8-9 per cent, while the plant utilisation will also increase from current 65 per cent to about 70-75 per cent," he said. Lower levels of wastages in the production would increase profitability by way of better realisation from the buyers, he added.

The quality-conscious retailing giants have also designed layered marketing strategy based on quality standards. "We follow a Good-Better-Best strategy for categories like pulses. Good quality is sold under loose form, providing value to consumers, secondly, we have packed pulses under the Food Bazaar label, which is a step higher quality and then at top end is our private brand, Premium Harvest, which charges a premium and gives best quality pulses. There are pulses used by certain communities for which we have our private brand, Ektaa which is our community Food Brand," said Devendra Chawla, head - private brands business, Future Group (Big Bazaar).

The pulse processing industry, which is clustered in different parts of the country. These include Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. While Vasad in Gujarat is a cluster for tur (pegion pea) dal processors, Rajasthan has a cluster of chana (chickpea) dal processors.

Madhya Pradesh houses large number of Masoor (lentil) processing units, while Maharashtra has processing units for moong (gram) and urad (black gram) besides tur.