Namkeen major Bikaji showcased its range of sweets and savories at the Aahar exhibition in Delhi in March. As Aahar is primarily aimed at the domestic audience, Neha Rao, vice president – marketing at Bikaji Foods, told IndiFoodBev that Bikaji showcased the range it produces and sells in the Indian market comprising bhujias, namkeens, sweets and snacks.
Bikaji Foods also showcased its frozen foods range primarily aimed at the international market. Though Bikaji is currently exporting this range, it is looking at distributorship for the HoReCa segment in India, Rao said, adding they have no plans to introduce it in the D2C market as of now.
Bikaji’s head office is in Bikaner with multiple plants in the city. “We manufacture all our products at our Bikaner plants. We have a new plant in the city for our frozen foods segment. We have a factory in the India Food Park in Tumkur in Guwahati along with plants in Kolkata, Patna, Raipur, Muzaffarpur, and Kanpur. While some of the plants are contract manufacturing units, others are Bikaji’s own,” Rao said.
Bikaji Foods has a stake in the Indian frozen food company, Rewa Foods, along with multiple other companies, she said. The company has over 200 products in its frozen foods range, including breads, samosas, and cocktail samosas.
As Bikaneri bhujia is a GI (geographical indication)-tagged product, Bikaji only manufactures it in the Bikaner plants, while other sweets, snacks and namkeens can be manufactured at any of its other plants, Rao said.
“Bikaneri bhujia is our bestselling product and we manufacture over a hundred tons of it per day. Our Bikaneri bhujia tastes unique due to the raw materials and spices that we use. Folklore says that Bikaner’s water is very good for manufacturing bhujia,” she told IndiFoodBev.
Though the Bikaneri bhujia leads Bikaji’s sales in the North and East markets, the company’s mixtures, sweets and namkeens are more popular down South, Rao said.
“Along with traditional namkeens and bhujias, we have interesting products such as trail mixes, multigrain bhujias, and jowar mixes,” Rao said, adding the company is getting into a slightly broader range.
“We are looking forward to acquiring younger and newer customers. Not everybody is as close to ethnic foods as we would like them to be, especially Gen Z and millennials. We would like them to know more about us. One way is trying to introduce new products that they can relate with,” she said.
Bikaji exports its products to over 30 countries worldwide, including the US, Canada, Australia, the UAE market, and the UK.
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Naresh Khanna – 10 February 2025
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