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This team of youths has launched the concept of branded eggs in Nepal: Story of ‘Sunaulo Anda’

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Sunaulo Anda is developing as a fresh and affordable alternative to ‘loose eggs’

It was the beginning of 2012 when the Shreenagar Agro Farm (SAF) planned to implement the concept of branded eggs for the first time in Nepal. Around the middle of the year, they launched the ‘Golden Egg’.

Years later, with the same enthusiasm, the group has launched ‘Sunaulo Anda’, a similar product but with different target areas, package, size, and lower pricing.

The concept of ‘Sunaulo Anda’ was initially pitched by Shreenagar Group in Spring Accelerator Nepal, an accelerator for businesses seeking to make a significant positive impact on the lives of adolescent girls through innovation. The newly launched Sunaulo Anda is a farm fresh egg brand marketed by Shreenagar Group, with an aim of providing immense nutritional benefits to the consumers.

The concept

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, average per capita egg consumption is 153 units annually. But, in Nepal, the consumption scales to 44 units annually, which is far below the average global scale.

“Going with the concept of Spring Accelerator, the initial aim of ‘Sunaulo Anda’ was to reach adolescent girls, but our ultimate objective is to reach everyone. Where ‘Golden Egg’ especially targets the major departmental stores, ‘Sunaulo Anda’ is set to target all the retail stores and local shops throughout the nation,” says Sarvesh Mainali, Business Development Manager of Shreenagar Agro Group. “Our major vision projects towards nutritional awareness as we understand that it is the pressing need of the moment. However, enhancing our business with the inbuilt strategy of societal marketing has been our focus too,” adds Mainali.

Sarvesh Mainali, Business Development Manager of Shreenagar Agro Group

The team is currently focusing on ways to make their product tastier and healthier. They plan to add up recipes in the egg packages and also to make their crates green. The branded eggs, well-graded, clean and uniform in size, are brought from their healthy farms and backyards where the chickens are medically monitored on a regular basis.

Launched on 17 June, with an initial investment of around Rs 10 million, the product received an overwhelming response at its launch date itself. When asked about the launch event, Mainali replied, “We had around 140 adolescent girls in the launch event. ‘Ten benefits of eggs’ and ‘egg recipes’, along with games to voice out the perspectives of girls on eggs were our programs on launch event. The girls loved the concept of Sunaulo Anda and, that also came out as a motivation for our team.”

Fluctuations in market price

Currently, the market price of Sunaulo Anda is 15 rupees per egg, which is equivalent to the normal price of egg in Nepal. On the issue of market price fluctuations especially due to the outbreak of diseases like Bird Flu, Mainali clarifies, “Our market price will be fixed in accordance with the price set by Nepal Egg Producers Association whereas bird flu is an epidemic we must be prepared to fight against. As we have inbuilt our supply chain throughout the country, even when bird flu hits a certain part of the country, our supply chain will immediately activate healthy supply from unaffected areas to affected areas. Also, Shreenagar’s next mission is ‘Shreekishan Innovation Hub’ focusing on better farm management and bio-security. This will surely help in making our chickens and farms disease resistant.”

A phase of challenges
Sunaulo Anda

No matter the scale and scope of any business, it can never be exempt from challenges. Even Shreenagar Group has its set of challenges. Quoting Mainali, the major challenges for this project can be enlisted as ‘proper human resource management, consistency in quality, breakage of the product, characterizing consumer behavior, recruiting long term staff, managing feedbacks, marketing and supply chain’. Also, regarding the possibility of negative feedback from the consumers, we asked him about his take on this. Being quite optimistic on this regard, Mainali says that he hopes that every feedback will come as a lesson for improvement and not in the form of negative marketing.

However, compared to the early stages, Mainali believes that they have coped up quite well with the challenges now. “Earlier, Nepalese market was quite price-sensitive. Today, it is gradually turning into a quality sensitive market with the growing consumer awareness in Nepal. People are changing their food habits and they are addressing their nutritional needs better. This has obviously helped us overcome some of the challenges we used to face earlier.”

Mainali, an enthusiast, cites how the high life expectancy enjoyed in Japan is largely down to the nation’s healthy diet. He adds, “Japan is an example how the consumption of food enriched with nutrients can shape people’s lives. Nepal must learn from Japan. Talking about the egg consumption in Nepal, the growing cake-cutting trends in Nepal has also attributed to the growing consumption of egg. Where there is a cake, there is an egg adding up nutrition to your diet. And, this is a positive sign.”

As poultry farming is traditionally considered a lower call business, what was your family’s initial response to your involvement in this industry?

Mainali recalls his initial days of entering this field, “My family was surely skeptical about the potentials of agro-industry and poultry business, but I always thought that Nepal has a huge potential in agriculture so I was really passionate to get involved in this industry. That’s what led me to leave my multinational company and get into poultry business. I am quite happy that the scenario is changing today. The poultry sector contributes about 3.5 percent to the GDP according to Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)’s report 2014, and today, a lot of educated people with commercial attitude and management skills are entering this field. With this, the societal attitude is changing too.”

The future of Sunaulo Anda

‘Egg power= Empowerment’ has been the main motto of the project.  Currently, the team of Sunaulo Anda plans to focus their programs in Kathmandu, however, they also plan to approach other untouched areas in Nepal in the future. They are working on their digital marketing. Also, they are planning to come up with similar other products with the same motto.

On being asked where do they see Sunaulo Anda in the next 5 years, Mainali cheerfully replies that he sees Sunaulo Anda being perceived as an egg brand that everyone would trust. The entire team has a vision of making their egg brand a leading egg brand in Nepal in the next 5 years.

 To the entrepreneurs in egg business:

“Passion and innovation is a must to be an entrepreneur. If you want to be an entrepreneur, you should never hesitate in implementing your ideas. Egg business is a social business; you not only make money but also serve the human society. Don’t just look at it as a trader. Explore the multi-dimensional aspects of this business. For those who are willing to start an egg business, you can always remember us if there is anything we can help you with. We will be more than happy to support you. Believe me, there is a great opportunity in the poultry sector,” he advises to the entrepreneurs into egg business.

To the aspiring entrepreneurs:

“I love the fact that the whim for entrepreneurship has begun in Nepal. There is really a huge prospect for entrepreneurship in Nepal,” says Mainali.

“In order to be a successful entrepreneur, you need to have a clear picture of what you want to do. Then, build up integrity with the stakeholders and work on maintaining customer satisfaction. Remember, team co-ordination plays a pivotal role in the process. Whatever project you come up with, work in a team. You need to have that burning passion and commitment for your dream. Besides, knowing your environment and contingent areas is equally important as we live in a dynamic world,” he advises to the aspiring entrepreneurs.

Startups for a better Nepal!

Presentation: Drishti Maharjan