Dehydrated onions: Farmer tests the waters with processed food

To install the unit a year ago, Borbade, who grows crops like sugarcane, wheat, toor, onion, availed a loan of Rs 25 lakh. His idea is simple — generate powder or dehydrated flakes from fresh vegetables after taking the moisture out of them. Such processed vegetables, although still new to the Indian consumer, has a steady market with food processing units, hotels, among others. Other than onion, Borbade also produces powders of pumpkin, bottle gourd and carrot.

Talking about his business, Borbade says in the first year alone, his turnover is around Rs 10 lakh.

“Through my own network, I had managed to get customers in hotels and hospitality industry. Also, around 10 to 20 kg of processed powder has found its way out of the country through traders,” he says. A popular product at the Jatra, the dehydrated onion flakes are priced at Rs 450 per kg. Borbade says he requires 12 kg fresh onion to produce a kilo of flakes.

“I had produced the flakes from onions in my fields and in case of voluminous orders, I would procure them from other farmers,” he says.

Other than the hospitality industry, Borbade’s produce has found a market with ayurvedic doctors and sweet shops, among others. His marketing, for the first year, was restricted to Karjat and other areas, but he is hopeful of taking his business forward in the years to come.

Dehydrated onions has a market mostly controlled by multinational companies. Due to the preference for fresh produce among Indian consumers, this market has not developed much.

At present, the hospitality industry is the biggest consumer of such flakes. Given the crisis in onion trade, such flakes may find a bigger market.