Indian consumers seem to have recovered their taste for traditional snacks with impressive growth rate of local and regional players in Last couple of Years: Bonafide Research

"The snack market has recently seen a boom in the number of traditional snack manufacturers who produce packaged products but it is very essential for them to develop a sound strategy and have an in-depth knowledge of their target consumers."

After 2001, India has seen a massive change in the Snack food market. The meaning of snack has been redefined from chips and cookies to beverages, mini-meals, and even three items on the plate. There is a rise in demand for the snacks market which drives manufacturers to grow and operate in this segment lucratively. Due to the busier lifestyle in the recent past, the demand for convenient products has increased a lot with the thrust of packaged food in India. With the advancement of technology, urbanization, increase in purchasing power, growth in the female work population, and expansion of nuclear families have augmented the business of packaged snack food and attracted a large mass toward the snack market in India. In order to save time, people are gradually shifting to ready-to-eat food items. And the growth rate of the packaged food market has been remarkable in the last five years.

Traditional and western snacks have become part of the daily diet for rural and urban kids in India. Working parents prefer to buy branded chips and snacks as they believe that these are prepared hygienically and will provide some amount of energy and nourishment that the children are deprived of because of their parent's busy schedules. Parents tend to forget that chips and snacks are fillers and not whole meal that provides nutrition in some proportion. Consumer's voice did comparative testing of well-known chips and snack brands to find out how well these products perform on health and hygiene parameters. Fortunately, all the tested products were endorsed as hygienic and as far as being healthy, the manufacturer was playing with words – ‘no added msg’, ‘edible oil’, and ‘iodized salt. So many different names confuse even educated consumers searching for the definition of these words in dictionaries rather than being able to make a quick decision as to which product is most suited for them.

According to the Recent Published Report of Bonafide Research "India Namkeen Market Overview, 2027-2028" India traditional snacks Market is expected to grow with a CAGR of more than 8% in the forecasted period. India Namkeen market has a wide range of product portfolios which includes Dal Namkeens, Sev Bhujia Namkeen, Gathiya Papdi Namkeen, Nuts Namkeens, and Mix Namkeen.
The market is mainly dominated by unorganized segments with more than 65% market share. The Indian traditional snacks bring diversity to the regional taste as India experiences diversification among different cultures of people. With the increasing consumption of packaged traditional snacks, the usage of various traditional snacks with exotic tastes, and moreover, health consciousness among people has increased the overall consumer base of Indian traditional snacks. Indian Market is a most promising upcoming market for snack companies. India is known for its traditional snacks with bold flavors & tastes. The country holds a prominent position in the world for Namkeen production, offering more than 50 range of Namkeen, including in flavor, Spices, and regional bases. Haldiram, Balaji wafers, Bikaji, Bikanervala, Prataap snacks, Laxmi Snacks, and DFM Foods are some existing players in the market having remarkable control over organized traditional snacks market.

Major Companies
Major brands that operate in the India Namkeen market are Haldiram, Balaji Wafers, Bikaji, Bikanervala, Laxmi Snacks, Parle, DFM Foods, Prataap Snacks, PepsiCo, and others, etc.