Mother’s love can do wonders. In Rajasree R’s case, it spurred an Economics graduate to turn an agripreneur. Rajasree, who moved to Qatar after marriage in 2003, would visit her mother in Nooranad, Alappuzha district, Kerala, every year. While returning, she would carry bags full of sun-dried jackfruit and seeds, painstakingly prepared by her mother. The dried products were much in demand with her friends. It was food for thought as Rajasree mulled using the ground fruit and seeds as an alternative to refined flour. When she finally returned to Kerala for good in 2015, the homemaker decided to start an agro-business, which would market products made with dehydrated jackfruit.
Rajasree started Fruit n’ Root in 2017, and today manufactures more than 400 jackfruit-based products—from chocolate, flour, pasta, gulab jamun powder, cakes, pudding, ice cream and payasam powder to burger patties, flavoured tea, soap and more. The fact that jackfruit is the state fruit of Kerala—almost every household has a tree or two in its backyard—made it easier for Rajasree to source it from the local community. “Processing eliminates the typical smell of the fruit,” she says.
To make sure that she knew the right steps, the 52-year-old entrepreneur learnt dehydration technology at the Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Kayamkulam in 2016 and the process to manufacture pasta from ICAR Central Tuber Crops Research Institute at Sreekariyam, Thiruvananthapuram. She further partnered with both the institutions to procure the machinery for her products. Today Fruit n’ Root employs 10 women at the unit in Nooranad and markets at agricultural fairs across the state, and also through social media pages. Rajasree also receives orders via local WhatsApp groups and retails through a select few partner stores in Thiruvananthapuram. “I want to expand sales by retailing on e-commerce websites,” says the entrepreneur.
After the jackfruits are collected and cut, the bulbs are removed, blanched, dehydrated and later crushed in a machine to make flour. “The manufacturing process differs depending on which part of the fruit is used in the production of which product.
For instance, the dried rind is used to make dahashamani (a mix of ayurvedic herbs boiled with water, which yields numerous health benefits) and also toothpowder. The latex from the fruit is used to make kajal,” says the agripreneur, who processes 300-400 kg of jackfruit during the season. The fastest-selling item is jackfruit powder—priced at Rs 700/kg—which is used to make puttu, idiyappam, upma, chapati and even cakes. The products are preservative-free and are packaged in aluminium foil and paper.
In 2021, Rajasree was conferred with the Best Jackfruit Processing Unit Award by the state government.
Since then, the entrepreneur has also experimented with gaba and matta rice, besides banana and tapioca to craft a variety of products such as murukku and pakkavada. “I would like to go global with my products,” says Rajasree, as she oversees the production of yet another batch of pasta.