CUTTACK: With people increasingly to health food, sale of millets and diversified food products has increased at the stall set up by Pankajini Producer Group of Cuttack’s Dampada block in the national-level Pallishree Mela at Baliyatra.The demand has gone up so much that the members of the producer group have ramped up production to meet the growing demand at the fair.
As many as 15 varieties of biscuits, namkeens, cookies and ladoo made of millet (Mandia), pearl millet (Bajra) and foxtail millet (Kangni) grains besides the millet chhatua and grains are selling like hotcakes. The millet diversified food products are of two types with sugar and without sugar having two-month expiry date and price ranging from Rs 30 to Rs 90 based on the weight. Molasses and honey have been used to sugar the food products.
The producer group has already made business worth Rs 1.5 lakh in the last three days.“Never had we expected such a huge sale of our millet products at Baliyatra. As we have already exerted 70 per cent of our stock, we have further engaged the members of our four SHGs to prepare more millet products especially biscuits, cookies and ladoo to meet the demands in the remaining days of the fair,” said Sumanpriya Sahoo, secretary of Pankajini Producer Group.
As the market grew, there emerged a scope to diversify millet based food products, with ORMAS Cuttack providing training to four women self help groups.“The Pankajini Producer Group was formed few months before Baliyatra under the aegis of ORMAS and Mission Shakti and the expertise of women members in capturing the techniques of preparing different varieties of millet diversified products and packaging helped them to launch their product at the Pallishree Mela,” said joint CEO, ORMAS, Cuttack Bipin Rout.