Kolkata's restaurant count reaches 38,838

The National Restaurant Association of India's Kolkata Chapter along with NRAI India Food Services Report 2019 (NRAI IFSR 2019) was launched by the Addl Chief Secretary, Home Industry, Commerce and Enterprises, and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Textile, Alapan Bandopadhyay on July 2.

NRAI IFSR 2019, released once every 3 years, is the 4th edition of National Restaurant Association of India's study to map trends, opportunities, and challenges of India's food service sector.

Talking about the contribution of the restaurant industry in the economy, as well as the formation and launch of NRAI, Dr Amit Mitra, Finance Minister of State, said, "Restaurant industry is the third largest after retail and insurance in the service segment. It has been a significant contributor to the country's overall economy in many ways. The industry engages millions of people, both directly and indirectly. The employment covers a full range of unskilled, semi-skilled and fully skilled people."

Mitra also mentioned the industry figures for the Kolkata market. "There are a total of 38,838 restaurants, in Kolkata, 7994 of which are in the organised segment. There is a huge scope in Kolkata for the growth of non-home cooked food and foodservice market, compared to cities like Delhi and Mumbai. It is towards this purpose that NRAI has launched its Kolkata Chapter," he added.

It is to note that market size of Kolkata's organised food service sector is estimated at INR 5,049 Crore for 2018-19. The industry in Kolkata currently generates direct employment for 66,234 people and stands fourth in comparison to Mumbai (4,28,358), Delhi (3,01,715) and Bengaluru

(1,17,660).

Sagar Daryani, Chapter Head of NRAI Kolkata and CEO, Wow! Momo speaking on the occasion said, "NRAI Kolkata Chapter has put forth Restaurant Industry's concerns with respective Government departments and it is very encouraging to receive a positive response from the State Government and a warm welcome from the fraternity members."

Mentioning that this is the only industry that offers multiple opportunities for various job roles/levels with varying education and skill levels, he said, "We will assist in conducting soft skill and food safety training of youth in rural areas and later provide them with employment opportunities in the sector. We also plan to provide training infrastructure for hands-on-training on food safety, hygiene, and soft skills for existing and to become a platform for training and creation of new workforce ready to operate resources in the food service sector".

The mega launch was attended by the who's who of the F&B fraternity.

NRAI IFSR 2019 is a comprehensive compilation of data gathered from in-depth interactions with over 130 restaurant CEOs and 3500 consumers across 24 cities in India.

Kolkata specific pull-out provides extensive data on a variety of parameters like average monthly spend per person, popular hangouts, employment and consumer's eating out behaviour and trends.