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Increasing aspirations, high disposable income and growing
exposure to global lifestyle and factors such as health
consciousness, convenience seem to characterise the
changing consuming patterns of modern Indian consumers.
According to managing director of Rabo India Finance,
Rajesh Srivastava, "Following the US, China and
Japan, India is the fourth largest economy in terms
of purchasing power parity. The consumer base is growing
with the households of annual income of over $5,000
expected to increase from the current 81 million to
147 million by 2015."
He said there were 9 million people in India with an
annual income of over $ 25,000, which would increase
to 20 million by 2014-15. The size of the 'consuming'
category-people with the annual income anywhere between
$5,200 and $25,000-will increase from 95 million in
2006-07 to 127 million by 2014-15.
He said the processed food consumption is set to treble
to $300 billion by 2015 and the value of processed fruits
& vegetables will increase to 10% in 2009-10 and
15% in 2014-15. Currently, there are over 700 malls
coming up in the country and organised retail sector
is growing at 45-50%.
"Food habits of Indian consumers do remain culturally
bound. The core food values are unchanged with the preferences
continue to remain in favour of strong flavours and
multiple textures. The composition of the main meal
is still sacrosanct. People think that food should be
eaten hot, needs to be freshly prepared. Home-made has
more positive values," said Preeti Reddy, vice-president
of Technopak Advisory Services.
She said the overall organised retail sector itself
would grow by 27% from $336 billion in 2007 to $1,011
billion in the next 10 years, while the value of organised
food retail was poised to increase to 46% during the
same period.
According to CEO (supermarkets) of Aditya Birla Retail,
Andrew Denby, "Of the 200 million-odd consumers
who represent the segment A, B and C of the consumer
category, 50% have seen 10% income increase and 30%
have seen 20% income increase in past 12 months.
"The consumers are optimistic about the future
with over 60% of them expecting their disposable income
to increase by 10% in next 12 months. Over 80% think
that they are better-off now than 10 years ago and believe
they will experience improvement in living standards
over next 5 years," he noted.
Source: yahoo.com
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