Gautam Raikar, proprietor at Liki Foods, which makes millet-based ice creams, snacks and other food products, opened his first outlet in Malleshwaram about 1.5 years ago. Raikar started it out slow with a manufacturing unit in Yelachenahalli with a production capacity of 20,000 litres a month. But with increased demand over the years, collaboration potential with larger businesses, and export enquiries from abroad, Raikar sees the demand going up to about 50,000 litres daily. He is now in the process of scaling up his business and opening a larger facility in a couple of months.

Davalappa Hipparagi from Raichur, who started his company Mr. Millet’ about five years ago, has also seen the demand for his products significantly rise over the years. Mr. Millet, which initially used to produce 50-100 pounds of millet breads per day, today makes about 700-1000 pounds of bread, around 100kg of cookies and 100 kg of rusks daily, all out of millet, per day and supply them in the Kalyana Karnataka region. With more demand for millet products coming in from urban centres, Hipparagi and his team travel to Bengaluru every weekend and are actively considering stepping up their activities in the city.

With the humble millets, once a staple food at many households in Karnataka, lately assuming the form of a “superfood” – particularly in urban pockets – and replacing the rice and wheat items on the platter, entrepreneurs across the state are flocking the space to introduce newer varieties of millet products to satisfy the cravings of the health-conscious city dweller. From ice creams to smoothies, cookies to muffins and pastas to pizzas, the consumer now has a variety of millet options to pick from, be it a snack, drink, main course or dessert.

An urban hit

At the three-day ‘International Trade Fair Organics and Millets 2025 held in Bengaluru earlier this year, as many as 36 millet start-ups participated. Raikar’s Liki Foods was one of them. Liki’s flagship product is non-dairy vegan millet ice cream, which is manufactured in-house.

“We use millet milk with some fruits and a little bit of sugar. The sugar is around 7-8%  and it is a zero-cholesterol product. These are all lab-tested products and we don’t add artificial flavours or colours,” says Raikar. Ragi (finger millet), jola (sorghum), Navane (foxtail millet), and sajje (pearl millet) are used to make Liki’s products which also include bread, rusk, cookies, shakes, smoothies, sandwiches, pasta and pizza, all made of millets.

According to Raikar, ‘guava with chilli powder’ ice cream has been a big hit. Millet pizza is another crowd favourite. While all the products have been introduced after more than three years of research and development, Raikar notes that he had not initially expected the kind of demand he is seeing today.

“We started off at a very small scale. But now that we are seeing increasing demand, we are planning to scale it up in another couple of months. We have tied up with various companies that cater to events and functions. But we cannot fulfil the demand as of now. We didn’t know it would have this much demand,” says Raikar.

He feels the increased awareness among people about the health benefits of millets and conversion of a significant population from dairy to non-dairy products as a result of lactose intolerance have contributed to the reception of his products.

While Liki Foods currently supplies only in Bengaluru, the company has applied for an FSSAI Central License so as to supply to other parts of the country. The products have also been receiving inquiries from Dubai, U.S. and Australia, claims Raikar, but the shorter shelf life of the zero-preservative products pose a hindrance to exporting them.

“We are seeing more awareness and demand in cities compared to rural areas. Within Bengaluru itself, we don’t see much demand from the south side. But if you go to Electronic City side, the demand becomes higher and we are getting a lot of enquiries from there. The software community there are very health conscious,” he observes.

A novel workaround

Davalappa Hipparagi, founder and CEO at Raichur-based Mr. Millet, completed his bachelor of technology in agricultural engineering from the University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, and started the company in 2019 to make millet-based jaggery breads, cookies, rusks, laddus and muffins. The company also supplies processed and packeted millets to super markets.

According to Hipparagi, when he started the company, one of the ideas was to see if the users’ reluctance towards millet could be overcome by introducing millet bakeries.

“In Kalyana Karnataka region there is a lot of malnutrition problems. I thought offering millet food products might be a good way to address this. The consumers are not ready to eat millers directly. So, we thought it might be a good idea to provide it through bakeries,” he notes.

The company currently supplies its products to super markets, organic stores and milk outlets in Raichur, Kalburgi, Koppal. Hospete, Yadgeer and Vijayapura. Millets are sourced from Karnataka and Telangana and are processed at the processing centre at UAS, Raichur.

The reluctant rural

In 2023, the United Nations declared it the International Year of Millets. Thanks to this and the push from the government in the forms of monetary benefits for millet farmers and schemes for millet entrepreneurs, the industry has been seeing an uptick, feel the entrepreneurs. However, they note that in terms of awareness among consumers – especially in the rural areas – there’s a long way to go.

“Even today, only 25-30% of the consumers buy millet products. Many are not used to the taste of millets. The raw material costs are high; We procure millets at Rs 70-80 per kg. So, the slightly higher price point of the products is also a hindrance to the rural consumers,” says Hipparagi, who feels that compared to Kalyana Karnataka, awareness is more in Bengaluru and is therefore planning to move slowly to the city.

Hipparagi and his team travels to the GKVK Campus near Yelahanka every weekend for sales and promotions.

“There is huge opportunity for millets if you plan your business in the right manner. As of now, it is better to focus on urban areas. It would help to increase the demand in rural areas if government institutions in every district can conduct awareness programmes on the benefits of millets at least once a month,” he suggests.

Challenges persist

While the overall outlook for the industry remains positive, entrepreneurs also point to challenges in the form of a shortage of authentic organic raw materials and difficulty in getting loans. Raikar notes that many sell millets claiming they are organic while their certificates date back 10 years or before, making it difficult to ascertain the authenticity of the produce. According to him, the large quantity of exports to foreign countries results in an increased price locally, with top-quality millers costing around ₹140-160 per kilo. Yet another challenge is the reluctance from banks to finance millet businesses, he says.

“Despite letters from the government and documents it is hard to get loans from banks. They are willing to give loans for machineries, but not for running expenses or overheads. If you ask OD for it, they will give Rs 4-5 lakhs which barely amounts to anything. This is one of the biggest problems small scale industries face,” says Raikar.

G.G. Kulkarni, MD of Abhivrudhi Herbals which makes millet-based peda, crispies, nippattu, laddu and so on, feel that there is lack of awareness on both sides of the equation.

“While millets have health benefits, if you take them regularly in large quantities it will affect digestion. Your body will get heated. There are many such things to be considered while thinking it is fit for regular human consumption. People need to be educated on both the advantages and advantages and be allowed to make an informed choice which will lead to increased acceptability,” says Kulkarni, whose enterprise has introduced pre-soak millets to help avoid some of the health problems.

A collective effort

The other side of the problem, according to him, is the lack of awareness among the entrepreneurs themselves.

“Lot of people don’t know about government schemes. There is a separate wing for millet research. But people don’t know whom to approach or how to approach,” he says citing the instance of helping a UAS-trained entrepreneur, who was on the verge of closing down her business, to get back on their heels.

Noting that handholding, connectivity and networks are important in the fledgling industry, he suggests that if the government could identify people who can train other entrepreneurs and systematically build more awareness among entrepreneurs by organising monthly programmes, significant results would be seen in three to five years.

Abhivrudhi Herbals currently manufactures and promotes products across India and see about 40% of its revenues coming from millet products which it introduced to its portfolio about five years ago. The company has distributors in Hubbali, Shivamogga, Davanegere, Raichur, Gulbarga and Hospete. Compared to five years ago, the graph is on an upward trend affirms Kulkarni.

“For my products there is excellent reception wherein I’m not in a position to meet the requirements. But beyond that, we, in our own capacity are helping other entrepreneurs with connections and networks. The industry should survive, that is the motto.”