‘Kumbilappam’ from Neeloor in Kerala goes international

Kumbilappams made by Neeloor Producer Company in Kottayam are being exported to several countries

Kumbilappam, a kind of steamed sweet dumpling, is a popular snack in Kerala. Traditionally made with a jackfruit pulp and jaggery, then wrapped in fragrant bay leaves shaped like cones, the sweet has gone international thanks to Neeloor Producer Company, a Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO), based at Neeloor in Kottayam district. The company has been exporting kumbilappam to markets in the US, UK, Canada and West Asia for the last 10 months.

“We export at least 50,000 kumbilappams a month under the brand name Neeloor,” says Shaji Joseph, CEO of the FPO. Explaining that they do not do it directly, he says “it is done through four to five companies across Kerala. This is in addition to the same number of kumbilappams that we sell in shops in and around Neeloor every month.”

The FPO registered in 2016 is an initiative of Neeloor Cooperative Bank and NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development). “The Cooperative Bank has farmers’ clubs under its various branches. We used to conduct training programmes in food processing every month. Eventually, we decided to implement what the farmers had learnt,” Mathew Cyriac, president of Neeloor Cooperative Bank and chairman of the FPO,

As a first step, they bought a dryer for tapioca and jackfruit. “When that clicked, we bought more machines and started making more value-added products from jackfruit. Kumbilappam was an experiment and it succeeded,” adds Mathew.

The demand for kumbilappam picked up when people started preferring it to deep-fried snacks, says Shaji. “Kumbilappam turned out to be a better substitute for the common fried tea-time snacks available in the market. Now we sell 2,000 to 2,500 kumbilappams daily,” says Shaji. While the snack is currently supplied to nearby towns of Pala and Thodupuzha, it will soon be made available in shops in Kottayam town, some 45 kilometres away, besides Ernakulam and Thrissur districts as well, Shaji adds.

Eight women work at the kumbilappam unit. “Although we started making kumbilappam from 2018, it got on to this scale only last year. Besides the daily batch, we get additional orders to be served at functions or gatherings,” says Padmini Viswambharan, production supervisor of the unit.

Kumbilappam has its variants. “While jackfruit pulp, jaggery, grated coconut, cumin and cardamom are common to all varieties, we use rice flour or semolina (rava) or both, depending on the customer’s requirement. For example, the daily batch that we supply has semolina; those we export has rice flour or both, that too in specific ratios. We also add roasted coconut pieces for a crunch. We don’t use any preservative,” explains Padmini.