Assignment Research Brief 1 : Market for Super Rice

A UN funded Non-Profit Scientific Organization, has developed a technology to fortify

rice which it has patented and calls under the name “Super Rice”. While the process is
complex and cannot be replicated by all, the idea is very simple. Standard Food
processing machines available in any country can be used to extrude rice lookalike
product, which contains nutrients like Vitamins, minerals etc. on a base of rice paste and
binders like Sodium Alginate. This “Super Rice” can be mixed with local rice varieties in
1:100 ratio to make the rice nutritive. The reason for doing so is that in many less
developed countries, people do not get enough vitamins etc. and hence they stunt their
growth. For e.g. in India, iron deficiency is especially prevalent among women. A staple
food is considered the best form of delivery of such nutrients as almost all people tend to
include them in their diets (unlike salt etc., which may not be eaten in sufficient quantity).
With wheat eaters, this technology is not necessary as wheat is typically eaten as a flour
and so nutrients can be mixed.

It would like to identify countries with such need and then explore possibility of
collaborating with local governments to send it through their public distribution channel
or use regulation/funding to push super rice through normal channel. In some countries, it
may be possible to make it sustainable economically if there are branded rice available.
In such cases, affluent people can be made to pay for the nutrient rice while the poor are
subsidized by them (Super Rice will be supplied free for lower grade variety of rice eaten
by the poorer class). Thus, in some countries, Super Rice could also collaborate with
commercial rice millers including Big MNCs like Unilever etc.

The other issue that worries them is that super rice has a very mild iron like taste (due to
fortification for Iron deficiency) and has a mild brown colour. This could mean that users
could throw out brown rice in countries where rice is usually cleaned and washed before
being cooked. Also, the metallic taste might make users reject such varieties of rice.

The agency has identified three countries for deployment of Super Rice: India (areas
where rice is mainly eaten), China and Brazil. It would like to conduct a study to
understand two issues they are grappling in their mind:

1. Whether the countries need such rice (does it have nutrient deficiency for such
intervention)? If so, does it have mechanisms that are favourable for deployment
(good local govt., supply system, branded rice or varieties for affluent population for
cross-subsidy etc.)?
2. Whether the product will face some usage problems with the users (like throwing out
while cleaning or rejecting the taste).

Your job as a researcher is to develop a research plan i.e. to define the Business
Objectives, research objectives, target groups to study, information you need to collect
from these target groups and the kind of research that need to be done for each e.g.
Primary vs secondary, Quantitative – survey or experimental vs Qualitative research?

Note: Develop only for India unless you feel confident to include other countries.
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