Snack company Kameda Seika Co. will produce its mainstay crispy rice cracker in India starting in June following a better than expected trial sales performance in the world's second-most populous nation.
The investment amount and production capacity for a plant in Haryana state adjacent to the capital has not been disclosed, Tamotsu Katagiri, manager of the corporate planning department, told NNA on Monday.
The cracker with roasted peanuts, known as Kaki No Tane in Japan and Kameda Crisps abroad, will be priced at 50 rupees (¥80) for a 70-gram package and 99 rupees for 150 grams, he said.
The firm, headquartered in Niigata Prefecture, formed a joint venture, Daawat Kameda (India) Pvt., in the northern state with leading local food maker LT Foods Ltd. in 2017.
The venture has since test-marketed the product under the Kari Kari brand imported from China and has seen good responses from local consumers, Katagiri said.
Kameda Seika is ramping up its overseas business, aiming to boost the ratio of sales in foreign markets to total sales from 7.5 percent in the year to March 2018 to 14.5 percent in the year to March 2024.
India is Kameda Seika's sixth country to locally manufacture the rice crackers, after Cambodia, China, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
