Rani Sunny of Idukki in Kerala grew up seeing many jackfruit trees in her backyard and eating numerous traditional dishes made from jackfruit. Up until 2018, jackfruit was just a normal fruit for this 57-year-old homemaker, from which chips and other traditional dishes were made. But a training programme in 2018, organised by Kudumbashree on making value-added products from jackfruit, changed her destiny and perception of jackfruits.
Rani, who has studied only up to pre-degree, is now a proud owner of a successful enterprise “Eden Jackfruit Products” at Kalvary Mount, her native place in Idukki, that makes several value-added products from jackfruit, earning a monthly turnover of Rs 12 lakh.
“The training programme changed my life because it gave me insights about making healthy value-added products from jackfruit. Initially, I used the dryer machine which my husband Sunny Joseph brought for drying cardamom to make products. Once my products became a hit among people, we availed a bank loan and set up an exclusive facility for making jackfruit powder, frozen jackfruit and jackfruit pulp. We started making the products from jackfruits available from jackfruit trees in our backyard. However, we soon started sourcing jackfruits from our locality as people grow jackfruit trees as a shade tree in cardamom plantations.”
Rani has implemented a business strategy to cut the operational cost of her unit. “We run the production only for six months: from February to July, while the rest of the months are used for selling the additional stock which we have made during the peak production time. We could save a lot of money on electricity bills and other utility bills following this model. Also, jackfruits are available only during the six-month period in a year,” Rani told “Open Digest“.
Rather than going directly to the market with packaged products, Rani has opted to supply her products in bulk to third-party companies which brand and sell her products in the retail market. “Except for a few groups of regular customers who buy products directly, we don’t sell our products directly in the retail market. We are also in discussion with a company for exporting our products,” she said. Rani is also happy that through her small venture, she could provide employment to eight women and two men from her locality.
