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Journalism of Courage
Chicken Tikka Masala may still be ruling the roost in Britain, but in curry country, India, pizzas are the flavour of the month.
Take, for example, Neelam Mehta. Whenever she hears the question ‘‘What’s for dinner, Mum?’’ after she comes home from her office, her answer is often the same: ‘‘Pizza’’.
‘‘It’s the easiest thing to do. Just pick up the phone and order. I don’t have to sweat it out in the kitchen at the end of the day,’’ said Mehta, an exporter.
Ever since India threw open its economic doors in the early 1990s, a host of global pizza chains including Pizza Hut, run by Yum Brands Inc, and Domino’s Pizza have been fighting for a slice of the country’s growing pizza market.
‘‘Pizzas are popular in India as they are more akin to traditional Indian food since they’re made of flour, cheese and tomatoes,’’ Pankaj Batra, Pizza Hut’s director of marketing (India), said. ‘‘The great thing about pizza is that it’s a very adaptable product. We can localise the product by varying the toppings and the sauce.’’
Children are organising pizza parties and most neighbourhood stores have their own version of pizzas that sell faster than traditional foods like samosas. Pizzas still account for a small slice of India’s 400-billion-rupee ($8.6 billion) fast-food business, food analysts say. While there are no industry-wide turnover figures, they say pizza sales can only grow with the main target the country’s nearly 300 million middle-class consumers. ‘‘Now every restaurant has pizzas on its menu,’’ he said. ‘‘The global fast-food chains are going to be significant players in the Indian market’s growth and expansion.’’
Encouraged by the growing demand in India, domestic players such as dairy products cooperative Amul have been dishing out cheaper pizzas to lure lower-income diners.
Amul, India’s largest cheese producer, which churns out more than 5,000 tonne a year, recently launched ready-to-eat pizzas priced at Rs 20 only. Today, it sells nearly 50,000 frozen pizzas a day at more than 10,000 outlets in 1,000 towns.
‘‘The growing popularity of pizzas is evident from the over 30 per cent increase in the sale of cheese in the last one-and-a-half years,’’ said R.S. Sodhi, GM for marketing Amul. To curry favour with Indian diners, pizza makers have developed a range of Indianised pizzas to tickle local taste buds — Peppy Paneer, Tandoori Pizza and Chicken Chettinad along with regular pepperoni and other flavours. ‘‘We’ve added more spice and flavour to the pizzas here,’’ said Pizza Hut’s Batra.
The growing appetite for pizzas in Indian cities has been fuelled by the increasing popularity of fast food after India began its liberalisation drive that has also seen the entry of global chains such as McDonald’s Corp. (Reuters)
