Here's how a farmer's unsold sugarcane crop paved way for a profitable vinegar business

Ramkishor Mishra, a 50-year-old sugarcane farmer from Uttar Pradesh, grew up watching his grandmother preparing vinegar from sugarcane juice. Little did he know that his grandmother's preparation method would some day help him set up a cottage industry and aid his income.

"About three years back, our entire crop of sugarcane remained unsold and me, my brother and my father decided to harvest the crop and extract juice from the cane. Preparation of sirka (vinegar) from sugarcane juice is something we all have seen our grandmother do. We then did the same and the vinegar produced got sold really quickly," Ramkishor Mishra, a resident of Chaubirwa village, told Gaon Connection.

"This event inspired us to launch a vinegar making unit in our home itself. We are happy that the vinegar business is contributing to our income," he added.

The farmer's brother Shyamkishor Mishra informed Gaon Connection that the profits raised by the sale of the vinegar amount to Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 per month.

"We also rear cattle and grow a variety of crops on our family-owned land spread across 85 bighas of land. This vinegar business is providing great support to our household earnings," he said.

'Production unable to meet demand'

The vinegar produced by the farming household is in great demand and its production is unable to match pace with the market.

"We not only sell this vinegar to the nearby markets in Sitapur but also supply it to some markets in Rajasthan. The demand is too high and our family has managed to produce and sell about 7,000 litres of vinegar and if we increase the labour needed to produce the vinegar, we will have even greater sales," Shyamkishor Mishra told Gaon Connection.

Himanshu Mishra, a 25-year-old member of the farming household added that the plans are underway to increase production by dedicating more working hours to vinegar production.

Himanshu told Gaon Connection that since his village is situated at a distance of eight kilometres from the Sitapur district headquarters, bad roads prove to be a significant challenge for accessing the urban market where the vinegar is in great demand.

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"The roads are too bad for transporting any goods to the main market in the Sitapur city. Whenever the roads are repaired by the administration, it is only a matter of formality and the roads get broken again in no time. It would be a great relief if the roads are repaired properly for good," he said.

'Willing to compromise on profit for increasing market presence'

Ramkishore told Gaon Connection that supplying vinegar to distant markets like those in Rajasthan is not as profitable as supplying them to nearby markets in the district.

"The transport costs are higher for our supplies to be sent to Rajasthan. The profits are almost five to ten rupees less when our sirka bottles are sent to Rajasthan but we are focusing on establishing our product in the market as the business is presently in the fledgling phase," he said.

"We ensure not to keep the drums airtight and leave some space for the gas to come out as it interferes with the manufacturing process. After three months, we add some readymade sirka into these drums and in another three months, the product is ready for packaging and sale. Thus, it takes almost six months to make sirka," he said.

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Meanwhile, Himanshu pointed out that the vinegar making process is a delicate procedure and hygiene is to be prioritised.

"Touching the vinegar with dirty or moist hands spoils the entire stock of vinegar. Also, at no stage of the manufacturing process should the vinegar be stored in a metallic container as the acid in vinegar reacts with metals," he said.

"We source our plastic bottles for the packaging of vinegar from Lucknow and it costs seven rupees per bottle. The sticker pasted on the bottle is from a local printing press in Sitapur and costs another five rupees. If we include the cost of cane juice then it will amount to about twenty to twenty five rupees. We sell each bottle for seventy rupees," Himanshu said while detailing the cost of production.