What sort of Bangladeshi biscuit brand became a cult hit in India
The annals of Pran Foods and its own popular Potata biscuit is a tale of Bangladeshi financial growth.
The biscuits contain a substantial amount of potato solids and so are technically a biscuit-chip hybrid.
It all started, as much things do in these ennui-filled days, with a tweet. "These biscuits are actually addictive," the tweet said, accompanied by a graphic of a scarlet packet labelled "Pran Potata Spicy Biscuit" in a cute cursive font. Suddenly, as often happens, I started since packet everywhere-random tweets on my Twitter timeline talking about how exactly these biscuits have already been the find of the lockdown, Instagram posts and stories that came up while scrolling mindlessly, and an enthusiastic discussion on a hyperactive WhatsApp group about the easiest way of sourcing these made-in-Bangladesh biscuits that are suddenly everywhere-and I don't just mean social media.
While orders were immediately positioned on Amazon, among the members of the said group found a stash in his neighbourhood supermarket and soon, packets of Potata were being dispatched across Bengaluru via Dunzo. "I just inhaled an entire packet," someone reported back in a few hours. My own haul arrived the next day, and tearing a packet apart, I was primarily afraid of disappointment.
Reader, it lived up to every word of the hype. Packed closely together in a neat row of properly round, flawlessly golden discs, the "biscuits"-they contain a substantial amount of potato solids and so are technically a biscuit-chip hybrid-were wafer thin, small enough to be crunched up at once (which is good because you find yourself reaching for another even while you are eating one). The mix of flavours-the essential sweet-salt-tangy-spicy-ness of the subcontinent-makes it a potent flavour bomb.
"It's extremely versatile aswell. I have had it with various dips and as a base for toppings like cheese and a spicy potato curry-it tastes brilliant," says Rahul Jadhav, a Mumbai-based content creator whose tweet first brought Potata to many of our Twitter timelines. He says he first heard about it on Twitter as well, with some other people raving about it-as far back as 2019, a Twitter handle jointly run by Rocky Singh and Mayur Sharma, hosts of the favorite food show Highway On My Plate, had tweeted about it.
It's a mystery why certain packaged food items turn into a cult hit. Why is Maggi popular than any other instant noodle brand in India? Lemony candies were something a long time before Pulse candy launched-and yet Pulse gained the sort of popularity most brands only dream of within an overcrowded market. The same could possibly be said of Coca-Cola, or Amul Butter, or Haldiram's Aloo Bhujia. They probably hit some sweet spot of nostalgia-meets-novelty, and these biscuits from Bangladeshi consumer goods company Pran had somehow discovered that spot.
Initially available mainly in the North-East and West Bengal, Pran's products first started becoming popular in this area a decade ago - especially their rusk biscuits, packaged jhal muri (spicy puffed rice), instant noodles and packaged juices. Potata is probably the first product from the company that has achieved pan-India, cult-level popularity, though, and is available in most markets-from Jaipur in the west to Mangaluru in the south. It really is now part of a distribution network that criss-crosses India, says Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, chairman and CEO of the Pran-RFL Group, the parent company that owns the brand and is involved with everything from agri-processing and farm machinery manufacture to selling stationery and toys.
"And that means you are Bangladesh's Reliance?" I ask Chowdhury throughout a Zoom call. He laughs. "No, no, madam, in comparison to big Indian companies like that we are extremely small," he says. Nearly true-the company employs over 100,000 people, exports to a staggering 145 countries, and its export earnings alone in 2019-20 was over Taka 110 crore (around ?92.8 crore).
Ahsan Khan Chowdhury, chairman and CEO of the Pran-RFL group (Pran-RFL)
"India is a huge market for us. You want to be present in 700 taluks of India and we look at corporate India for inspiration. How to become more structured, how exactly to run a company more professionally…. At the moment, I finished a call with this distributors in Jharkhand, and before that I was speaking with someone in Africa. Our desire is to become a global company. Borders are meaningless," says Chowdhury. In 2015, the business setup its first factory in India-in Agartala, Tripura.
Pran-RFL, of which Pran Foods is a subsidiary, was started by Chowdhury's father in 1981, ten years after Bangladesh achieved independence. A retired major general in the Bangladesh army, Amjad Khan Chowdhury had a solid patriotic streak, says his son-he wanted to see the young nation become economically strong and free of poverty, and empowering its farmers through agribusinesses was his vision. Younger Chowdhury, a graduate of Wartburg College in Iowa, US, joined the business when he was 21 and has been in charge of so that it is more consumer-facing and innovative.
He is good at trying new things and replicating them in his factories. "When I travel in the south (of India), I see companies like MTR making ready-to-eat upma and idli mix, when I travel by Indigo Airlines, I see their upma and dal-chawal where you add warm water (to the container) and it's a full meal, and I think 'how can we make something similar to this?'" says Chowdhury.
Potata, he says after some prodding, was inspired by a snack he previously while travelling in China-a biscuit that tasted like a potato wafer. Back in Bangladesh, he asked his food scientists to reverse-engineer it, adding potato flakes, potato paste and tapioca starch and also other flavours and flavour enhancers to wheat flour to help make the crispy wafer-thin biscuits that appear to be evenly sliced poker chips.
Chowdhury knows he's getting into territory dominated by consumer goods giants like Britannia and ITC in India but he doesn't appear daunted. "They are big. I have so much to understand from them-and not merely them but Indian companies like Paper Boat. But India is a big enough country and I want Potata biscuit to be accessible from Kashmir to Kanyakumari," says Chowdhury.
