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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Peanut-as-food market growing

Peanut-as-food market growing

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published Published on Feb 17, 2010   modified Modified on Feb 17, 2010

India’s love for peanuts is now such a mega trend that chikki and chivda are bigger money-spinners than groundnut oil, the most expensive traditional cooking oil. The popcorn generation has morphed the peanut from a stodgy oil crop into the nation’s favourite snack food.

But hasn’t the peanut always helped us live through moments of excitement and ennui? Isn’t the volume of peanut shell litter a uniquely Indian indicator of popularity in public spaces? So what’s new? ET helps you join the dots.

Though nature’s pre-packaged snack is a classic favourite, for decades, people saw economic value not in its taste but in the oil it contains.

Almost 70% of India’s peanuts were crushed to produce oil. Groundnut oil was a sure-shot winner in a fat-starved economy. Roasted or parched peanuts, as the industry calls them, brought up the rear.

Now, things are quite the reverse. While the groundnut oil market is regressing, the peanut-as-food market is growing 20% annually. Very soon, one out every two peanut kernels — technically a legume, but nutty enough to qualify — produced here will head for the table rather than the crushing plant.

The biggest factor behind the peanut’s image makeover has been price. India’s lethal food inflation has given it new life.

Groundnut oil is so expensive that it is outpriced by other cooking oils. At Rs 68 per kilo, today, groundnut oil is double the price of imported crude palm oil, the cheapest fat available. With such sharp disparity, groundnut oil has been reduced to a niche product for die-hard loyalists.

The decrease in crushing has increased the supply of kernels for food consumption. As groundnut oil is unlikely to match palm oil prices any time soon, this trend should continue.

India’s love for peanuts is now such a mega trend that chikki and chivda are bigger money-spinners than groundnut oil, the most expensive traditional cooking oil. The popcorn generation has morphed the peanut from a stodgy oil crop into the nation’s favourite snack food.

But hasn’t the peanut always helped us live through moments of excitement and ennui? Isn’t the volume of peanut shell litter a uniquely Indian indicator of popularity in public spaces? So what’s new? ET helps you join the dots.

Though nature’s pre-packaged snack is a classic favourite, for decades, people saw economic value not in its taste but in the oil it contains.

Almost 70% of India’s peanuts were crushed to produce oil. Groundnut oil was a sure-shot winner in a fat-starved economy. Roasted or parched peanuts, as the industry calls them, brought up the rear.

Now, things are quite the reverse. While the groundnut oil market is regressing, the peanut-as-food market is growing 20% annually. Very soon, one out every two peanut kernels — technically a legume, but nutty enough to qualify — produced here will head for the table rather than the crushing plant.

The biggest factor behind the peanut’s image makeover has been price. India’s lethal food inflation has given it new life.

Groundnut oil is so expensive that it is outpriced by other cooking oils. At Rs 68 per kilo, today, groundnut oil is double the price of imported crude palm oil, the cheapest fat available. With such sharp disparity, groundnut oil has been reduced to a niche product for die-hard loyalists.

The decrease in crushing has increased the supply of kernels for food consumption. As groundnut oil is unlikely to match palm oil prices any time soon, this trend should continue.


The Economic Times, 17 February, 2010, http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/columnists/nidhi-nath-srinivas/Peanut-as-food-market-growing/articleshow/5578209.cms
 

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