Demographic and Economic Profile

It is fair to say that the city of Chennai is just a slightly bigger market than the one we are used to here in Dunedin and New Zealand for that matter, in large part because of the population. India as of 2019 has a population of 1.339 Billion people, with Chennai making up 9.8 Million people of that. This makes Chennai over double the population size of New Zealand, which should suggest there is plenty of mouths to be filled with Ocho Chocolate. Chennai ranks 31st in the world for biggest cities by population (World Atlas, 2018). The population in Chennai has had a steady increase over the past few years of 2.5%, which is predicted to only continue. This means that Chennai’s population is only going to get bigger, which should be great for us, right?

There are many industries which Chennai rely upon for its economic backbone. One of these is the automobiles industry, as Chennai has been referred to as the Detroit of Asia, which really puts in perspective for me how important this industry must be. Plenty of world renowned names have centres in Chennai, such as Caterpillar, BMW, Mitsubishi and many others. Electronics Hardware is another industry which is massive in Chennai, as well as Software services. There is starting to become a trend here, which shows that Chennai is used as a place to help produce some of the most essential things in peoples lives today. Chennai is also referred to as the Banking Capital of India, which also help the economy for Chennai. Other industries which exist and are large in Chennai include, Petrochemicals & Textiles industry, Entertainment Industry and also Medical Tourism industry. There is many industries which are existent in Chennai, which could be a factor as to why their population is so high. I’d like to think workers in this industry are going to be wanting/ relying on a nice Ocho Chocolate bar to get them through their day in years to come.

The average salary for someone living in Chennai is Rs 547,267 (Payscale, 2019) which when converted to New Zealand dollars is $11,745. This in New Zealand terms is just not even a salary which one person could live on. The best comparison I have for this salary in New Zealand terms, would be working all year to in return get what a student gets yearly for their student loan, which we all know is extremely tough to live on. However, compared to the average yearly salary in India as a whole, which is Rs 28,702, it is a hell of a lot bigger. This number in New Zealand Dollars is $616. This is extremely low, to put this in perspective, our cheapest product currently is our Love Heart shaped chocolate goods which are $6.50, a person on this salary could buy 94 of these products before they have no more money left from their salary. This is crazy, and really makes me wonder how we will get our chocolate sold over in India, and especially Chennai.

In India the only legislation there is in terms of legality of food, comes from the FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India). This association sets the laws and rules on all food in India. They state that any chocolates sold in India must not have any vegetable fat, as well being free from rancidity or odour, insect and fungus infestation, filth, adulterants and any harmful or injurious matter. This is great for us, as we would easily be allowed to sell our product in India.