Exclusive Interview with Shubra H.- Founder of Manipur's leading Food Processing Unit, Meira Food:

Meira Foods: Empowering Womenfolk Economically Meira Foods was started by Shubhra Hanjabam in 2004 in her Kitchen. She started the food processing company with a few women and a hundred rupees note. With that hundred Rupees, the women bought wild gooseberries, cut the fruits into halves, mixed them with salt, soaked them in water overnight, and sun-dried them to be packed the next day. The salted pieces were delivered to the shops nearby. And the money thus earned was reinvested. This way, Shubra started Meira Foods with the aim of empowering womenfolk. Now, the annual turnover has crossed a few crores and is now a household name today. The products consist mainly of pickles, candies, and salted dry fruits. Legacy of Meira Foods Among Other Competitors Shubhra, being a Master’s Degree Holder in Food and Nutrition, exactly knows the right combination of spices to be used in making pickles and has years of experience. These two combinations plus her original ideas investing in process of preserving make Meira Foods a class above others. Besides, the machinery, stocks, and trained and dedicated staff are the real assets. These have helped Meira Foods to flourish over other competitors. Faith, love, and support of the customers, and stable maintenance of quality from the staff also add to the standard of the Meira Food set, says Shubhra. Right from the beginning, Meira Foods has always worked to empower womenfolk economically through its work and activities. The industry has always wanted to create a sustainable livelihood model for the women of Manipur, whereby they could sit at home in the kitchen, utilize resources locally available, consume good food, and earn a livelihood, the proprietor adds. Meira Foods began by making dry amla and ventured into making amla candy made of smaller varieties of wild gooseberries preserved in sugar. After amla candy, her venture proceeded to introduce amla powder and pickles. This was followed by wild apples, from which they made candy and salted dry fruit. Their initial success among buyers in the local market, however, wasn’t enough for Meira Foods. After all, once these buyers knew how to process them, they might as well make it at home. The objective was to introduce these products to people living outside the state interested in food from the Northeast and organically grown natural foods. This led them to participate in various food exhibitions in 2006, where people from outside Manipur could taste their products. For their first food producers’ exhibition, which was organized by the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) in Guwahati, they carried products that they thought would last them 10 days. However, they ran out of stock on their first day. Such was the demand for their candies, pickles, and salted dry fruit. They enjoyed a similar overwhelming response during the International Trade Fair the same year at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi. These exhibitions inspired Shubhra and her team of three employees to ramp up production. Of all the products, maximum revenue comes through multi-usable King Chilli pickles. They also have introduced bamboo shoots, since as you know that Manipur is rich in varieties of bamboo. "We have been processing fermented bamboo shoots into different forms,” she says. Meira Foods also runs a cold storage and processing unit in Kaching along the Indo-Myanmar Road. There, the bamboo shoots are converted into pickles. “Fermented bamboo shoots possess a very strong taste and smell, which often puts off many non-locals. Once these bamboo shoots are converted into pickle form, it tastes quite different and more acceptable to markets outside Manipur,” adds Shubhra. Other popular pickles under the Meira Foods brand include those made of organic mushrooms and fish. Meira Foods is working closely with the Manipur Organic Mission Agency to expand their production, and have tied up with a Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) to source certified organic pineapples directly from them. Shubhra says her business needs life skills rather than academic skills. Cooking comes naturally to women, she feels, and food processing is a logical step forward that turns tradition and inborn skill into an opportunity for women’s economic empowerment, considering everyone cannot land a government job. When women have economic independence, they have a say in the family and society, says Shubhra. However, Shubhra says she prefers human labour to automation as it ensures more employment. The absence of data regarding markets is a hurdle as it is difficult to estimate how much to produce. But demand outstrips production and there is very little waste, she asserts. Awards and recognition have come her way, including the FICCI 2018 Outstanding Entrepreneur and special recognition from the National Small Industries Corporation and many more. But there is no resting on her laurels as Shubhra looks forward to taking Manipuri flavors across the globe