The
finest fowl
Binny
Sabharwal visits the Real Good Chicken factory and gives a detailed
account of all the processes that the company is employing to produce
a quality product
The
poultry meat sector of India is poised for a giant leap with the World
Health Organisation giving a clean chit to Indian products. According
to a recent study conducted by Rabo India Finance,“poultry meat
is the fastest growing animal protein in India. It has grown at a compound
annual growth rate of 12 per cent in the last 11 years and is expected
to continue growing at similar rates in the near future.”
According to a report published by the US Department of Agriculture,
processed poultry meat constituted only about 7 per cent of the total
poultry meat production in 2002. But“this share is gradually increasing,
spurred by rising consumer income, changing lifestyles and efforts by
the industry to popularise processed meat.
Many of the poultry integrators have already built or are in the process
of building processing facilities to produce chilled and frozen meat
and products to cater to institutional demand and for retail sale.”
The poultry industry on the whole is chiefly unorganised and the same
holds true for the small percentage of the processing sector too. But,
with the changing market trends, a number of organised players are entering
into the hitherto difficult terrain of value-added poultry products,
and one of the most obvious names in this sector is Godrej Agrovet with
its brand Real Good Chicken. Keeping in view the radical changes in
this segment of the industry, we had a feel of the company’s processing
methods, at its unit in Taloja at the outskirts of Mumbai.
The Taloja unit
To cater mainly to the Mumbai and Pune markets, the company
set up a high-tech processing plant with state-of-the-art facilities
at Taloja at the outskirts of Mumbai with technological guidance from
the Stork Group of Companies, The Netherlands.
Since its inception in 1999, the business has grown at a fast pace.
“The brand was launched in Mumbai in 2002 and in the first year
itself we had a 6 per cent market share in Mumbai and Pune which is
very good for a start-up operation. Now, after two years, our market
share would be close to 7 per cent or so,” said Sushil Sawant,
Marketing Manager, Godrej Agrovet.
Till now the company has been testing waters and trying to make its
presence felt in a market which is unquestionably dominated by the unorganised
sector. The fact that the limited number of non-vegetarian Indians till
this day trust the wet markets for their regular supply of chicken,
hasn’t traced a smooth path for the company. Due to this reason
and other market economics the company is not planning, as of now, to
go national with their brand. The brand already has a stronghold in
Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai ande
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