Originally reported and written in March 2023, this story has been republished as part of our archival content.

Navnoor Kaur, a 27-year-old from Ludhiana recalls her family making a shift from refined sugar to jaggery in 2018. But this, she says, wasn’t the easiest.

“The jaggery market in India has been the same for around 50 years now. Jaggery is sold loose and there were no proper innovations or brands in the space,” she informs.

While Navnoor intended to step up and create innovation, she was occupied with pursuing her MBA in marketing from IIM Ghaziabad. But she held the cause close to her heart with the goal that one day, she would revisit the dream.

“Post completing my MBA in 2019, I worked in the corporate sector as a sales professional whilst also devoting time to a side hustle that I had in the F&B space,” she says.

All the while, the idea to create a brand out of jaggery was on her mind.

“I often noticed how milk would tend to get sour when we added jaggery to it. While we were making a switch from sugar to jaggery for a healthier alternative, it wasn’t working out too well. I also knew of so many who wanted to make the switch to jaggery but were hesitant to do so because of its taste,” says Navnoor.

“I wanted to create a brand that would enable people to make the transition seamlessly, whilst also collaborating with the farmers of Punjab and helping them earn more,” she adds.

So while still working full-time in 2019, she delved deeper and started research and groundwork that would eventually lead her to launch Jagger Cane in 2021.

Starting out in the home kitchen

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