It's back to basics for the Indian food mart. The fancy meal might fetch a premium, but packaged rice, wheat flour and pulses are going to provide growth and volumes to the burgeoning Indian food retail market, says a report by Yamini Dhall and Deepshikha Monga in The Economic Times.

"If you want to give your topline a boost, you have to look at volumes, which will come from supplying the basics in food retail," says Piruz Khambatta, Chairman and Managing Director, Rasna. The fruit pulp-based drinks company is looking at backward integration into branded flour, pulses and rice.

Also testing the waters is Pepsi, which is considering supplying its surplus vegetables to organised retail chains on an experimental basis. Existing players like ITC, Cargill and Satnam, who are already into the premium packaged rice-wheat flour market as well as local emerging players like Shaktibhog and Rajdhani have collectively not yet covered 25% of the market demand for packaged food basics. Experts estimate that the total market demand for flour alone is about Rs 150 billion and that of other cereals is pegged at Rs 100 billion.

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