Indians are generally known for their excellent taste buds and changing perceptions. At home, they crave restaurant-style food; away from home, they miss mom’s recipes. Give them a packet of savory snacks, they’ll prefer something healthy; hand over a bowl of healthy salad, and they’ll seek taste! To quench this contradictory appetite of our people, Bharadwaj Karanth launched FruitTreat under Karanth’s Foods - offering crispy, crunchy, healthy, and tasty vacuum fried fruits and vegetable snacks.
Karanth's Foods is an ISO 22000:2018 certified enterprise formed by Bharadwaj and a team of youngsters from farming community who have brought together their skills and learning in various fields.
The Inception For A Nobel Cause
Speaking about the genesis of the brand, Bharadwaj shares, “I hail from a remote village called Sringeri in Chikkamagaluru district of Karnataka. After completing my postgraduation in MSc. In Computer Science, I had to move to Bangalore to continue my professional career. Deeply connected to my hometown, I felt that city life was not meant for me. Fortunately, I got an opportunity to pursue Ph.D. in digital image processing.
I returned to Shringeri and joined as a lecturer at the Sri JCBM College and continued my research work as well. As a professor, I observed that the
graduated youngsters are often forced to leave the village and their families to pursue work, which also happened in my case. This is largely because of the lack of industrialization and employment opportunities; due to geographical limitations of the Western Ghats, supply-chain challenges, power outages and more. This got me thinking to create job opportunities in the village.
But How? Every other business plans demanded the import of raw materials and excessive costs. The only option was to use something that is existing. We at Sringeri, take pride in our farming capabilities. However, the farmers in the region find it very difficult to access a market. The produce often gets wasted by the time they reach the consumer market. This gap laid the foundation for our entry into the food processing industry, to help farmers and the youth at the same time.”
Bharadwajmet several experts and visited top institutions to figure out a solution without having to use any preservatives or sugars. After bouts of analysis, he learned that Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand were using vacuum frying machines to process the fruits and vegetables without additives. Although the mechanism required a huge investment of Rs 50 lakh, Bharadwaj decided to make this possible. With the support of his close circle and bank loan, Fruit Treats was launched in the year 2017.
Started with an intention to promote interest in agriculture among the youth,Karanth’s Foods has now created a conducive business environment in Food Processing
Started with an intention to promote interest in agriculture among the youth, it has now created a conducive business environment in Food Processing. The company works with a special emphasis on the preservation of traditional agroproducts retaining all their nutritional contents.
Since its inception, Karanth‘s Foods has launched a range of products under its flagship brand ‘FruitTreat’. From banana to jackfruit, beetroot, ladies finger, garlic, carrot, sweet potato, papaya chips, and more. It has now expanded into manufacturing powdered spices and seasoning under the brand name ‘Ruchira’.Other plans of the company is to create products with medicinal value using divine herb Amruth balli.
Currently, the company is operating in over 18 states of the country and is available on platforms like Amazon, Big Basket, and others. What began with a small rented space, has grown into a spacious factory. Although it took time to spread awareness, today many are grabbing Karanths’ products for its quality, nutritional value, and taste.
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