Guwahati, Aug. 1: Theresa Timungpi of Umsoi in central Assam's Karbi Anglong district never thought that the ubiquitous jackfruit could be a bread-earner for her.
Timungpi, who is associated with Khandal Ju - a company selling juice, chips and pulp made from jackfruit - now earns between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 every month.
Khandal Ju today put up a stall at the second Jackfruit Festival on the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), Guwahati, campus, at Lalmati for better exposure and market linkage.
"We are selling in local markets, but the demand is pretty low. We hope to get market linkage through this festival," Timungpi told this correspondent as she sold a packet of chips for Rs 20 and a can of juice for Rs 40.
Though jackfruit is abundant and grows naturally in the Northeast, only a few such as Timungpi are doing business in jackfruits and value-added products.
"Jackfruit is the fourth largest-grown fruit in the country after banana, mango and grapes. It is rich in antioxidant fibres and contains anti-diabetic ingredients. There is a huge demand for products from jackfruits such as pulp, raw jackfruit and its seeds in north Indian states and in the UK, the US, Malaysia and parts of Southeast Asian countries. Bangladesh, which shares a border with the Northeast, exports 1 million kg of jackfruits to the UK alone every year," Manoj Kumar Das, director of IIE, Guwahati, said.
"We want to attract farmers and entrepreneurs in the Northeast to take up the jackfruit business. Last year, we had trained at least 80 farmers on how to peel a raw jackfruit and make value-added products such as juice, pulp, pickle, jam, jelly among others. This year, around 130 farmers and entrepreneurs are taking part in the training and workshop being held during the festival," Hemanta Rabha, a senior project officer of the IIE, Guwahati, said.
"A farmer can earn up to Rs 50,000 from one jackfruit tree in a year. The roasted seeds taste like coffee and can be used as flour. Jackfruit seeds are nutritious too," he said.
The associate professor of the University of Agriculture Sciences, Bangalore, Shayamalama S, during a technical session with farmers and entrepreneurs, talked about how to preserve and process raw jackfruit.
"There is a huge demand for jackfruit pulp used in making ice cream and cake," she said. Entrepreneurs from Kerala who are doing good business in jackfruits shared their success stories with local entrepreneurs in another session.
"An entrepreneur in Kerala sells 50,000 tonnes jackfruits in markets in northern India and our entrepreneurs can also tap the market," the officer-on-special duty of the Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship, B.K. Sohilya, said.
The festival, which began today, will conclude on Thursday.
