Daybreak - Bringing millets back to our plates will take more than declaring 2023 the year of millets

Episode Date: March 27, 2023

 2023 has been declared the International Year of Millets after India, the largest producer of millets in the world, moved a resolution in the UN General Assembly.The Prime Minister himself has been promoting the use of millets as a staple through various channels like Mann Ki Baat and the Global Millets Conference that was recently held in the national capital.But making what were once called 'coarse grains' as the next big food trend is riddled with challenges and will take more than declaring 2023 the year of millets.Tune in.

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In the past few times, when any other than any other than us, the country-adish-bhara, so my case is to be the food in the food in India's millet, they have our motet-anad-to-anad-to-in-whoed dishes. And the unobabhae has, these mahanubhaos this dish

very much like this. And our moatheanage in the millates in some many good information

together of they tryas that was Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his show Mani talking about

how he's been making an effort to include millets in the menu for foreign leaders when they visit India.

If you eat out or order in you must have noticed that a lot of restaurants have now started including millet

based items in their menus. But what is the sudden fascination with Millets? Yes, they were a staple in many cuisines across the country for centuries, but rice and wheat are the staple now. In an interview with BBC Manu Chandra, who is a popular Indian chef said, and I'm quoting, with modernization and increasing conveniences, we have forgotten what used to be traditional and lost sight of what our grandmothers

used to cook. Given that we Indians have the highest rate of diabetes in the world, including millets in our diet just makes sense, but they have been sacrificed at the altar of rice and wheat. End quote. Now, as you heard, even the Prime Minister himself is actively promoting millets. Just last week, he inaugurated a two-day global millets conference in the National Capital. He even released a postal stamp and an official coin on the occasion.

2023 has been declared as the international year of millets by the United Nations. Ever since this year began, every week we've been seeing some event or the other celebrating Millets. The army has included them in its rations. State governments are promoting them to farmers and companies are launching packaged millet-based food. The conversation about why millets should be the next big thing in food seems to be getting louder and louder. It is also about why India needs to lead the charge because of its history with millets and also because even now it is the largest millet producer in the world. In fact, it was India that moved the United Nations General Assembly resolution

to declare this year as the year of millets. Ruhi Kandahari, a writer at the Ken, wrote about this push to make millets a staple again. And she raised a very pertinent question in her piece. She asks, how do you create the next big food trend? Can you even do something like that? Because at the end of the day, such matters are decided at the dining table, right?

What do the consumers want and how much do they care? Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Kemp. I'm your host, Nickdaa Sharma, and I don't chase the news cycle. Instead, thrice a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I will come to you with one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Monday, the 27th of March. Millets were among the first crops that humans cultivated. Their history goes back to at least 5,000 years.

They were and are fun. across Asia and Africa with evidence that they were consumed by the people of the Indus Valley civilization and as a part of the traditional cuisine of various cultures. Farmers in water-deficient areas loved millets because of their hardiness, especially because they are not as water-intensive as rice or wheat. Plus, not to forget their nutrition value, they contain 7 to 12% of protein, 2 to 5% of fat, 65% to 75% of carbs, and 15-20% of dietary fibre.

These stats are all comparable to wheat and rice. But despite this, when the green revolution happened in India in the 1960s, the government promoted hybrid and high-yield varieties of wheat and rice to increase food production for both domestic consumption and export. And being officially tagged as a coarse green did not really help the cause of millets either. It kind of portrayed them as less desirable compared to, say, polish rice or polish wheat. Now, there is no doubt about what the Green Revolution did for India's food security. We all studied about it in school.

But like Ruhi says, Millets being the collateral damage was definitely a no will. During 1965 to 70, they formed 20% of the Indian food grain basket. But now, they're down to under 10%. With the population that is witnessing a rise in diabetes, millets are actually a good alternative to rice and wheat with high iron content and calcium. them content. They are also far better for the environment, which is another big point in their favour. The Indian government has been trying to bring the food back on the menu for a few years now. It has invested over six crore rupees and 66 startups, increased the support price of

millets by 80 to 25% over the last decade, and also started promoting millets in the public distribution system. Now, while all this is well and good, it is going to take a little more than this to bring Millets back into the general imagination. Stay tuned. The UN Declaration for 2023 is a way to increase awareness and popularity and the organisation does this for different foods every year as a way to promote them. For example, after 2013, which was the International Year of the Kinawa, the food crops production rose across the world from just 50 countries to over 123 countries.

But banking on this to bring millets back into the normal everyday meal and not just as an exotic item in a fancy restaurant menu is going to be quite hard. You see, in India, the entire food supply chain and system from processing of the grain to distribution sales consumption is designed for wheat and rice. The Indian government's Util Innovation Mission is actually running a millet challenge and inviting applicants to help solve the four obstacles which are preventing. millets from reaching the plate. And what are these four obstacles? Number one, millets can become edible, flavorful and easy to cook

only after they are processed. But they need multiple rounds of processing to recover the grain in a way that retains the nutritional value. Number two, post-harvest processing cannot be centralized and scaled easily since every type of millet

varies in size, shape, nature of the grain, surface, and hardness. Number three, millets have a poor shelf life, which is why they need pre-treatments and elaborate storage conditions. Number four, since the market is small, supply and demand are inconsistent, distribution is limited and it is quite hard to make the business economics work. Now, all these are reasons why, despite the publicity and promotional value of the millet

year, the millet market is expected to grow at a compound annual. growth rate of about 5% over the next 5 years. Other superfoods like Kenoa and mushrooms in comparison are both growing at about 10% every year. Like Ruhi says, all the bells and whistles of 2023 will be useful for sure, but bringing Millets back to their former glory is not something we should expect to get done

in the space of the next 12 months. But hang on, there might be something that could actually fasten the process of bringing millets back as a staple. The Ken editor, Seema Singh, wrote about it just last month. In January this year, the FMC giant ITC launched the Mission Millet, a campaign to mainstream the grain in India. During the launch, the company's chairman Sanjeev Puri said that millets were a forgotten lot,

receiving inadequate appreciation, and that the group's agri-food and hospitality businesses would now come together to make them a preferred food of choice for the masses. In February, ITC also said that it is going to acquire Yoga Bar to fortify its presence in the 45,000 crore rupees nutrition-led healthy food space. Yoga Bar, as many of you may know, also sells cereals and oats. With the kind of distribution that ITC has and the newly launched mission, Millets may actually get enough shell space in this category. Apparently, that is also what Tata Consumer Private Limited wanted to try.

do with Soulful, which is the millet-based niche cereal and snacks brand that it acquired in 2021. Now think about it. ITC offers sharply differentiated but not niche products. So the scope for scaling up is real huge. Just look at the Ashurwad range, which has wheat flour, salt, spices and even Sunfis biscuits. ITC's Puri said that the company will introduce millets as an additive or rollout 100% millet products across categories like snacks, confectionery, cereals and ready to eat and even biscuits. So Seema asked Rajshaker Reddy Selem, who is a founder of Shrestha Natural Bioprodux, which happens to be the owner of the organic food brand called 24 Mantra about ITC's Milit Initiative. He says that companies like ITC can actually make a huge difference if they do this

with passion and put money behind it. He says the Key will be promoting centre of plate products like flowers, green, rava, etc, as this will lead to substantial consumption of millets. But changes in food habits are also generational. So it might help if giants like ITC reach out to children and get them on the side of millet. Maybe make drink mixes, two-minute millet noodles or bars with substantial millet content. In other words, create millet products that taste great. is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small sample of our subscriber-only offerings.

A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters, subscriber-only apps and podcast extras. Head to the Ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. I am Snigda Sharma, your host, and today's episode was edited by my colleague Rajiv Sien.