India has some of the highest rates of cardiovascular disease as well as diabetes seen in the world. With such health concerns affecting Indians, they are now beginning to see the health benefits associated with olive oil and the Mediterranean diet.
There is a growing interest among our country’s 1.25 billion people in the health benefits of olive oil and a trend away from the high-heat techniques that characterize traditional Indian cooking. – Rajneesh Bhasin, president of the Indian Olive Association and managing director of Borges India
While olive oil consumption in India still stands at very low levels, big food companies have seen the opportunity for India to become a very promising market for olive oil.
In an interview conducted by Curtis Cord, publisher of Olive Oil Times with Bhasin they covered aspects affecting Indians eating habits and health as well as the growing olive oil market in India.
According to Bhasin, most Indians lead a sedentary lifestyle, starting work early and finishing late spending most of their time at a desk job. The lack of physical exercise on a daily basis is beginning to affect people in the age groups of early 30’s and 40’s.
Bhasin claims that more and more Indians are aware of the need to change their diet and based on this need they introduced an extra-light olive oil that would be well paired with Indian cooking.
Bhasin also spoke about the changing cooking habits of Indian households due to international influence.
People are beginning to cook differently. They have experienced olive oil and products like this because a lot of people today, because of the IT boom in India, a lot of people travel internationally. They come back as change agents and hence the change in character that is beginning to happen. – Rajneesh Bhasin
Another factor that will encourage olive oil consumption in India is the fact that the olive oil market is growing and seeing some major players in the market now. With the emergence of different olive oil brands on the market, consumers will be given more option for choice and will become hooked on a category, says Bhasin, which is good for growth of the market.
As we speak, the category is just 12,000 tons, and India consumes at least 15 to 18 million tons of edible oil. There’s enough room to grow the category exponentially and I think if all of us start working on building the category, creating consumer awareness around olive oil and the health benefits, the category will grow many-fold in years to come.
According to Bhasin, the standard of olive oil entering India are well monitored and the Indian standard today is exactly in line with Codex. The entry gate has a strong check which ensures that suboptimal or poor quality products don’t enter the country.
Lastly, Bhasin commented on olive oil production in India.
India, if in times to come, and I’m really hoping it happens within the next decade or so, if we have more than 15, 20,000 hectares of land cultivated across various states producing olive oil, I’m sure we’ll start producing, three, four, 5,000 tons of local olive oil which will help hedge the prices that we get in imports, and maybe will put some pressure on exporting countries to bring their prices down to be more competitive in the Indian market.
Sources: http://www.oliveoiltimes.com/olive-oil-basics/rajneesh-bhasin-on-olive-oil/50021
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