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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Chakkakkoottam: The WhatsApp group of Jackfruit lovers that’s now earning lakhs

Chakkakkoottam is a WhatsApp group with over 500 members in each of Kerala’s districts. This is how this organisation established its own brand of value-added jackfruit products.

T Mohandas was conversing with his buddy Anil Jose on a beautiful summer morning in Ernakulam, Kerala, in 2019. Mohandas spoke about how jackfruits in his neighbourhood were wasted every day, despite the fact that people all around the world were willing to spend hundreds of dollars to get them from a store. Anil said, “Not a single fruit of yours shall wither from next year.”

After this mysterious communication, Anil established the Chakkakkoottam WhatsApp group (chakka meaning jackfruit and koottam, meaning community). He invited several of his buddies who had jackfruit trees in their backyards. The group’s goal was to bring together jackfruit enthusiasts and producers and hold events to share information and several types of fiber-rich fruit.

They aimed to reduce waste of the state’s “official fruit” (as announced in 2018), and the scheme was a huge success.

Within months, people from all around the state joined the club and organised meet-ups in various locales. Businesspeople, government personnel, photographers, IT experts, engineers, farmers, and others were among those who took part.

During a few months, the ensemble grew in prominence. Farmers in the club offered their produce to members who were missing the flavour of their favourite fruit. The media published the community, which attracted newer members.

R Ashok, a commercial photographer and an active member of the group, as well as an avid chakka fan, was invited to speak on radio Qatar on July 4, 2021, which is marked as World Jackfruit Day.

During the interview, he joked about the organisation one day being a corporation that sold chakka-based items. Members of the group, some of whom worked in the food sector, were fascinated.

Along with Ashok and Anil, Chakkakkoottam International Private Limited was founded by Vipin Kumar, who has over 40 years of experience in the food industry, Sabu Aravind and Manu Chandran, who has been in marketing for over 16 years, and Bobin Joseph, who specialises in producing and customizing food industry machinery.

The food firm intended to create and commercialise a variety of value-added jackfruit products.

The business sells jackfruit chips, flour, halwa, as well as dry and tender jackfruit, with prices ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1,000.

These will be available shortly on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart. The goods are currently accessible in Ernakulam retailers such as Lulu and Reliance.

Without releasing specific income statistics, the firm claims to have earned in the lakhs.

The firm, which was founded in October 2021, already has a 5,000-square-foot manufacturing and storage facility on leased land near Kolenchery.

Chakkakkoottam is aiming for the worldwide market and is now working on it.

Newsdesk

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