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Stories - 25-09-2022
My dream is to see SN!BS in every corner of India
Rijk Zwaan’s colourful range of snack vegetables made its debut on the Indian market just last year. Today, SN!BS are already sold through six grocery retail chains in India and demand is outstripping supply. Vinod Kumar M., Head of Sourcing Fruit & Vegetables at online grocery retailer Bigbasket, comments: “These beautiful-looking snack items increase our offering to our consumers.” Rijk Zwaan will be presenting these bright, healthy and inspiring eye-catchers at Asia Fruit Logistica.
Snack vegetables
Ajit Bisoi, Rijk Zwaan Chain Manager in India, played a key role in this success by introducing SN!BS to both online and offline retailers. “Snack vegetables are a completely new category in India. We started growing these snack cucumbers, tomatoes and sweet peppers at our own Research & Development facility in Bangalore, because growers didn’t want to take the risk. I travelled a lot of miles to supply the products to retail partners like SPAR and Nature’s Basket. Attractive packaging solutions and promotional activities supported a successful introduction at SPAR.”
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Repeat sales
At first, retail partners and consumers were a little reluctant to try the snack peppers, Bisoi explains. “They thought they might taste spicy, but they were surprised by the sweet flavour. We now offer three mixes: red, yellow and orange tomatoes, red, yellow and orange peppers, and green and white cucumbers. If a new product has a unique selling point – healthy, colourful snacks – it will inevitably become popular. We see a lot of repeat sales, which is a good sign. Currently, the demand is much higher than the supply.”
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Gourmet range of products
One of the Indian retailers that sells SN!BS is Bigbasket, a leading online grocery retailer with a 46% market share in this segment. The company operates in more than 45 cities, Vinod Kumar M., the retailer’s Head of Sourcing Fruit & Vegetables, is enthusiastic about the concept: “SN!BS is a very attractive product for consumers who have done some travelling abroad and are now looking for a gourmet range of products. The colours appeal to the customers at first sight.”
High-quality, healthy vegetables
Kumar strongly values Bisoi’s commitment. “Ajit has been really very collaborative and keeps coming up with new ideas. The collaboration with Rijk Zwaan brings our customers a very good range of high-quality, healthy vegetables that add colour to their diet. And these innovative products can inspire new young chefs,” he comments.
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Scaling up production
Because of the high demand, the Rijk Zwaan chain manager is now scaling up the production. Bisoi: “Besides Bigbasket and SPAR, online retailer Zepto and offline retailers STAR BAZAAR, LULU Hypermarket and Nature’s Basket are also on board. We have trebled the size of our cultivation area and producer Nutrifresh has started growing these snack vegetables in Pune. Hopefully, by 2025, our SN!BS will be in every corner of India.”
Visit Rijk Zwaan at Asia Fruit Logistica
To stimulate retailers, traders and other chain partners in Asia to add more colour in the fresh produce category, Rijk Zwaan will showcase its colourful palette of bright, healthy and inspiring vegetables at Asia Fruit Logistica in Bangkok from 2-4 November. Come and meet us at stand F-17!