Making Products From Jackfruit
Wakao foods is India’s first brand that makes products from the superfood – jackfruit. This Goa-based sustainable food brand offers handpicked natural products with a vision of benefiting the planet.
No Preservatives: The company stands for creating a better tomorrow – one where humanity thrives, with products that are curated from ethically grown and sourced produce that is then hygienically processed and packaged. All Wakao products have no preservatives, come with a shelf-life of one year and require no refrigeration.
For The Masses: A post-pandemic company, Wakao Foods has made a name for itself in the market, evincing curiosity amongst people to see as to how the company is making products for the masses from the most ignored fruit of the world, jackfruit.
For Sairaj Dhond, the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Wakao Foods, the Eureka moment struck when he realised the potential of jackfruit.
An Unexplored Market:
“Jackfruit doesn’t require any introduction as the fruit has been consumed in the world as a very famous mock meat.
Hence, it came to us as a shock when we got to know that 1.4 million tons of jackfruit is grown every year in India and 75 per cent of it goes waste.
We felt proud by tapping into such an unexplored market and thereby giving farmers a new lease of life,” says Dhond.
Primary Focus On D2C: “Expanding via D2C (direct to consumer) is our primary focus as it’s the next big thing in the world,” says Dhond.
“We are seeing a lot of people who are really excited about these new things that are coming up. And meats, plant based alternatives are just the tip of the iceberg in India and it’s going to explode.
And as far as the export markets are concerned they are mature markets already. They have been waiting for a product like ours. And it’s just that we have to reach there and give them our product,” asserts Dhond.
Ready to Cook: Jackfruit is a very stubborn fruit to cut open, clean and get it ready for cooking. It’s very sticky. And it’s a very hard fruit which needs to be boiled before you can actually get it to cook. And Dhond’s products are giving access to this ready to cook product all through the year.
“Jackfruit is a seasonal fruit available just four months of the year, however, Wakao is providing it throughout the year,” he adds.
Positive Response: Dhond feels blessed to have been chosen as one of the Young Entrepreneur Awards (YEA) winners by BW Businessworld.
“This award is not only for me, it’s for my team, the entire team that has worked really hard for the last one year and ten months,” says Dhond.
“And, within such a short time, the acceptance that we’ve seen in the positive response that we’ve received has been really heartening.
This award will go towards strengthening faith in the consumers that our brand can be trusted, that we make products that are really healthy, tasty, and are good for the world and the environment,”he adds.
