Bengaluru, a burgeoning hub for the restaurant scene in India, has the potential to become the number one culinary destination in the country over the next 10 years.
The National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI) presented the NRAI India Food Services Report 2016 (NRAI IFSR 2016) this week. Talking to DH, the association’s president, Riyaaz Amlani, said, “Bengaluru, which has a huge eating-out culture, has the potential to be the number one cullinary destination in India in the next 10 years. The city is the fourth largest food services market after Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. The employment generated by food services Riyaaz Amlani here is around 2,15,000 people in both organised and unorganised segments. The organised segment itself employs around 1,60,000 (74%) people of the total workforce. This highlights the growth of Bengaluru as a key city for the food services sector.”
Amlani also pointed out that Bengaluru, being the perfect blend of new vs old when it comes to food services, has seen the latter grow exponentially over the last few years.
Owing to a young, earning population with fair amount of exposure to global tastes, besides a will to experiment with exotic eats, Bengaluru, in the last couple of years, has witnessed a number of trends including farm-to-fork, food walks, pub crawls, molecular gastronomy, and regional cuisines, among others.
The organised market (chain and organised stand-alone) in Bengaluru is valued at Rs 7,870 crore, which is significant at 8% of the total organised food services market in India, while the unorganised market holds around 33% share in the pie, and is valued at Rs 3,870 crore.