A SPOON FULL OF JAGGERY- Navnoor Kaur
This is a story of a young entrepreneur who is one of those successful young millennials who is setting a new standard for young people today. Before beginning her career as an entrepreneur, Navnoor Kaur worked for a total of three years as an employee in the corporate sector. She has a Master of Business Administration degree from IMT Ghaziabad. She was born into a service family from Ludhiana, Punjab. She is the first-generation entrepreneur in her family & has always been quite enthusiastic about the prospect of contributing to a socially impactful agricultural initiative throughout her career. She planned to take the initiative to go from refined sugar to jaggery with the assistance and backing of her family, friends, and mentors. Jaggery’s heavenly taste is what makes it popular. However, this naturally sweet food has enormous health benefits.
Navnoor’s curiosity led her to visit a number of jaggery plants, where she became aware of the presence of adulterated and unbranded jaggery in the market, which was produced under unsanitary circumstances, as well as the use of chemicals in the process of cleaning sugarcane juice.
But since there has been an abrupt change toward healthy living, she felt the need to add jaggery instead of sugar in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle. However, persuading others that this was the healthier option was the true challenge.
In the year 2019, Navnoor conceptualized her brand “Jaggercane,” and in the year 2021, she started testing the samples of her brand. After an overwhelming response, she began processing and selling her brand. Her plan was to encourage people to switch to jaggery, which is a more nutritious sweetener that, even when consumed in small amounts, may provide more than thirty percent of a person’s recommended daily iron consumption.
Navnoor and her co-founder, Kaushal Singh, who holds an MBA in Agribusiness from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, had the vision to transform jaggery from a “sad packaged good” sitting in the back of department stores into a trendy good that catches the eyes of the people and finds its way into the people’s hearts. Navnoor visited Kaushal Singh’s farm & found it to be very hygenic.
Using jaggery as a base, we boost the advantages of the product by adding nutritious value additions such as nuts and seeds, stated Navnoor and Kaushal.
They do not make any sacrifices in terms of quality and are certain that their goods are superior to those of their rivals due to the sanitary manner in which they are processed and the use of okra roots for the cleaning of sugarcane.
The results of their poll led them to the conclusion that most individuals do not like the taste of jaggery. Jaggercane creates goods that have increased value, are tastier, are stylish and new age, and are suitable for people of all ages. These items may even be consumed on a regular basis as snacks.
The vision of Navnoor and Kaushal is to replace sugar with jaggery.
Both parties noted that there are two avenues via which they generate revenue: business-to-business and direct-to-consumer.
“Selling to other businesses enables us to get immediate payment, as does our practice of white labelling. We use that money to build our brand in the direct-to-consumer market, which is expensive to do on your own.
In addition to this, they said that “even though we would be using better sweetener choices in tea and coffee, the snacks would still include refined sugar.”
In addition, Jagger Cane provides a variety of really delightful snacks that are high in iron and protein and can satisfy your craving for something sweet while still being good for your health.
Featured Products:
- Organic Jaggery Cubes
- Organic Jaggery Powder
- Almond Illaichi Jaggery Crumbs
- Pumpkin Seeds Jaggery Crumbs
- Crunchy Jaggery Granola
- Coconut Jaggery Crumbs
The company operates based on a social impact-driven business model, and its leadership is comprised of purpose-driven women. Additionally, the majority of the workforce that is responsible for producing and packaging the company’s goods is comprised of women.
On the other hand, Jaggercane was recognised by Bhagwant Mann, the Chief Minister of Punjab, as one of the emerging startups in the state of Punjab. Jaggercane is now one of the rising businesses in Punjab.
Challenges
Due to the fact that Navnoor did not come from a business background, she was confronted with a number of obstacles when she began from scratch, and the financial expenditures associated with marketing and processing were significant.
Message for farmers:
There is a great deal of room for improvement in all aspects of agricultural work today. The trend these days is for people to go back to their origins. To meet the ever-increasing demand, farmers shouldn’t put all of their faith in MSPs but should instead concentrate on developing some innovative solutions.
