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Growth of traditional drinks in India
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Friday, 30 April, 2021, 14 : 00 PM [IST]
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Professor Sudhir Nair
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The ultimate thirst quencher - India, the land of diverse cultures, traditions and customs is also a land varied in climatic conditions, and has a plethora of drinks other than the standard variety of tea and coffee across the regions as colourful and refreshing as a kaleidoscope in the beverage world.
Let us take a tour of traditional drinks (known and unknown regional drink variety) in India - Lassi -Punjab, Chaas -Haryana, Panna -Gujarat, Neera -Tamilnadu and Mumbai, Pink Tea, kahuaa, kanji-Kashmir, Sattu Sarbat -Bihar, Sol kadi, Kokam sarbath- Goa and Malvan in Maharashtra, Nannaari - Tamilnadu and Kerala, Sambhaaram- Kerala, Butter milk Thandai -U.P, Kesar kasturi-Rajasthan,Tanka Torani - Odisha, Gondhoraj lebu ghol- Bengal, Shikhanji -U.P, Badam Milk- Bangalore, Piyush- Gujrat and Maharashtra, Ragi Kanji- Karnataka, Mastaani-Pune and Maharashtra, and the heartful Jigarthanda from Madurai.
Beside all these mind-boggling and tongue twisting flavourful delights, there are the usual Nimbu paani, tender coconut water, sugarcane juice, rosemilk, Rooh afza, Lassi combos, Jeera sodas.
It is encouraging to note that the fruit based drinks market stands out tall and high at a fantastic Rs 5000 crore. This industry is in the nascent stage when it comes to growth it is a promising future with a current growth rate of 30 to 40 percentage annually. This is just the tip of the iceberg, the non alcoholic market in India is worth $5 billion, the health beverage segment is worth $300 million, the juggernaut could roll on with Indians now being more health conscious than ever before with buzz words like organic, herbal, ayurvedic, immunity, doing the rounds during this unfortunate on going pandemic.
Changing patterns of consumer behaviour related to rising disposable incomes, preference for quick off the shelf variety of health drinks and changing patterns of perceptions of International carbonated beverages are all contributors of the next growth phase of traditional drinks in India. Not forgetting to mention the untapped market of a whole new world of alcoholic brews from our seven sisters of North East, Goan Feni and much more.
Other technological advances in milk and beverage manufacturing equipment with newer innovations in traditional territorial drinks market is slowly rising from the vast potential of traditional drinks in India.
The entry of players like Amul, Paper boat, and Dabur and also a wide untapped local market small local players make this industry segment all the more interesting to watch in the near future, the availing supermarket culture helps in the marketing and availability of these traditional drinks in attractive packing, a liberal attitude towards new spectrum of drinks traditional in nature, increased shelf life with stringent quality control norms of Government bodies like FSSAI lures the ever willing consumer of traditional drinks to try out healthy time tested and proven drinks to quench the ever growing market of traditional blending with the modern.
The health benefits of these drinks are enormous and have proven themselves over the centuries of trust and experience, what needs to be done is the awareness of the potential of these drinks and more entrepreneurs to come forward and participate in desi branding of our world class products in the beverage world .Our traditional beverage industry is second to none with the right mind-set of 'Make in India'
The impetus to launch a thousand products and the will to do so will definitely steer the traditional drink market in the right direction in the years to come. Of course, challenges will be there, first the need to cater to our own domestic market, standardised recipes, vast regional taste variations, acceptable flavours without adding preservatives, sourcing high quality raw materials locally, modernisation with automation in bulk production in hygienic environment following stringent quality control tests, implementation of HACCP, following HACCP guidelines, customer feedback and care and finally easy on the pocket for the product customer who actually buy the product and promotes it, freely through word of mouth by recommending the product to others. All these are very important to maintain at all costs in ever changing environment of the Indian discerning mind.
The need of the hour is variety which is not lacking and indeed is the spice of life, the explosion of flavours is there in traditional drinks in India, we are a country of a billion people who take pride in our food and healthy traditional beverages. After all India is the land of Amrith or nectar, the immortal elixir of eternal life, Somras the drink of Indira the lord of the heavens above. The ultimate thirst quenchers are as varied as a mosaic in the canvas of a painter and a artist par excellence. It exists only in India.
(The author is H.O.D for Iamd Bangalore. He can be reached at sudhirnair410@gmail.com)
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