Tag: rural market

Social entrepreneur Ruchi Jain delivers farmers’ produce to places like Taj Palace Hotel

Social entrepreneur Ruchi Jain’s fifth venture named “Taru Natural” sells 5- gram jaggery sachets to India’s leading hotel and cafe chains.

Social entrepreneur Ruchi Jain’s fifth venture named “Taru Natural” sells 5- gram jaggery sachets to India’s leading hotel and cafe chains that includes Taj Palace Hotel, Blue Tokai, Suzette Creperie, Smokehouse deli and many more.

She has completed her Master’s degree in Environment Change and Management from the Oxford University.

The idea of selling jaggery 5-gram sachets came into her mind when she got in touch with farmers who were not able to sell their farm products including jaggery.

She used to go on field visits to different villages in India as a government official under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy. She was working on rural electrification project funded by the World Bank between 2012 and 2014.

“That trip was a big game changer and I realised it’s more important to work on integrated development of farmers who are the backbone of the country”. She left her job in 2014 and decided to work full time serving the rural market and helping them organise their supply chain for reaching the right customers.

She founded organic farming startup Taru Naturals in 2016, taru meaning ‘tree in Sanskrit’. With this farmer-focused startup, Ruchi hopes to safeguard the interest and livelihood of farmers operating on fragmented land by helping structure what she saw as a ‘highly disorganised sector of organic farming’ with an erratic supply chain.

Her mother Poonam Jain, who is a co-founder of Taru Naturals is responsible for research and development department. She is a naturopathy expert and has always been experimental while practising organic farming in their backyard.

Ruchi says a great deal of research and development work went in developing their 5-gramme jaggery powder sachets.

They are now looking to enter the B2C market, some of its bestselling products include turmeric latte, khapli wheat flour, sourdoug and so on.

4 reasons Indian entrepreneurs should consider rural markets

72% of India’s population actually resides in the rural areas which are why exploring this market is a wonderful idea.

Rural marketing is a vertical which is extensively being explored by big agencies like O&M and Madison. 72% of India’s population actually resides in the rural areas which are why exploring this market is a wonderful idea.

Here are 4 reasons why every entrepreneur should consider the rural market:

I. The huge population

As discussed before, the rural market is huge and certain areas are yet to be tapped. This gives the entrepreneur a great opportunity to actually tap these markets and sell their products. When you move your products to these areas, you will gain a first mover advantage which is necessary as the rural folks are very brand loyal.
Because the urban market is exhausted, marketers are shifting focus to rural markets from where the real numbers are coming.

II. Changing demand patterns

The rural areas are slowly but steadily developing with the availability of electricity and rising education evils. They are aspiring to become more like the urban people they watch on television which is why their demand patterns are also constantly changing. The entrepreneur could use this to his/her strength and introduce products which will help them achieve their aspirations.



Lately, rural folks are buying laptops, microwaves and all sorts of technology to make life easier.

III. Standard of living and digitalisation

The standard of living in rural areas is slowly increasing as rural people have a habit of saving money. They are using this money to buy more and more stuff to achieve their inspirational goals. Also, rising digitalisation because of availability of electricity and internet is helping the markets become aware about new things.

ITC e-Choupal is brilliant initiative to make internet available to the rural markets.

IV. Marketing opportunities

The opportunities for marketers in the rural areas are unlimited and effective as the people there actually respond to the common techniques used. A marketer could do something as simple as billboard advertising or a nukkad natak or choose to organise an event or use methods like word of mouth to reach those more people.