KIT: The packaged food market in India

Strategic tools for the practising manager

The size of the packaged food market in India is estimated at $10 billion and is expected to reach $20 billion by 2014, while the share of packaged food in the food and grocery market is expected to touch 5 per cent by the same time.

Factors that have fuelled this industry’s growth are the arrival of food multinationals, rising popularity of quick-service restaurants, modern retail trade, technological advancement, changing urban lifestyles and so on.

The main categories of packaged food are bakery products, canned/dried processed food, frozen processed food, meal replacement products and condiments. Some emerging new categories in this segment are processed dairy products, frozen ready-to-eat foods, diet snacks, processed meat, probiotic drinks and so on.

Some key players in this industry are Hindustan Unilever (tea, instant coffee, biscuits, pulses, instant beverages), Nestle (instant coffee, milk and milk products, ready-to-eat foods), PepsiCo (aerated drinks, fruit juices, cereals, snacks) and Haldirams (sweets, namkeens, syrups, crushes, snacks).