S B P Pattabhi Rama Rao (PRR), MD of Chennai-based Gourmet Popcornica
In 2002, he joined Cookieman, then a single-store premium-cookie business in Chennai. As its Indian partner, he expanded it to about 70 stores and helped sell it to Everstone in 2018. It was renewed in 2022 for another 20 years. Gourmet Popcornica now works with about 17,500 farmers across roughly 40,000 acres in eight states, including 8,000 acres in Chhattisgarh. The company says it is the world’s fifth-largest grower of popcorn maize and India’s largest, and claims a 69% share of India’s pre-mix popcorn segment. Its revenue for FY27 is projected at `500 crore, against `355 crore in FY26. In FY15, its revenue was `9 crore. Gourmet Popcornica is developing corn and mustard seed and has entered oil palm, with around 8,000 acres under cultivation. By FY31, the B2B company aims to have more than 100,000 acres under popcorn, seeds and oil palm, targeting combined revenue of 1,500 crore by 2032.
After a road show with cinema chains, the two firms signed a seven-year exclusive agreement.
“Today, you hear popcorn pop, not bombs booming,” says PRR, who founded the company in 2014. In leased paddy land, it is experimenting with elevated “islands” for oil palm trees. It’s farming,” PRR says.
Agriculture was not PRR’s original plan. From an agrarian family in Andhra Pradesh with roots going back generations, he studied mechanical engineering at the College of Engineering, Guindy, before joining the Taj in Mumbai. Working as an executive assistant to then Taj chairman Ajit Kerkar taught him to deal with unfamiliar territory rather than avoid it. PRR wanted an exclusive arrangement for India. His pitch was deliberately blunt: “You can have a hundred girlfriends, but you can only have one wife. I want you to do an exclusive deal. Krug laughed, and agreed to visit India. Covid reinforced the lesson: controlling the chain — from seed and farmer to processing and customer — was more valuable than simply supplying cinemas. It has commercial cultivation in AP, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, with other states at the trial stage. But the more consequential part of the business may be the system built around the crop. Farmers sign contracts before receiving seed. They get a price before planting and inputs financed without interest or margin. Digital ledgers track costs and earnings, while the company commits to buying the contracted output. The objective is to reduce uncertainty for farmers adopting unfamiliar crops while giving the company greater control over raw material. The next phase goes beyond popcorn. The common thread is reducing India’s import dependence by building domestic farm-to-market supply chains. After popcorn, oil palm is the next big avenue. “My business is not oil palm, popcorn or seed. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Chennai | Silver Rate in Chennai | Bank Holidays in Chennai | Public Holidays in Chennai | Chennai AQI | Weather in Chennai | Petrol Price in Chennai | Diesel Price in Chennai | CNG Price in Chennai | LPG Price in Chennai