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Monday, March 17, 2025

Businessman diversifies to meet food demand

by

Shastri Boodan
1309 days ago
20210816
Rajendra Mangalie, third from left, at the launch of Mangalie foods in Charlieville yesterday.

Rajendra Mangalie, third from left, at the launch of Mangalie foods in Charlieville yesterday.

Shastri Boodan

The pan­dem­ic has seen many busi­ness op­er­a­tions fold un­der eco­nom­ic pres­sure.

For­mer na­tion­al crick­eter Ra­jen­dra Man­galie, 55, has in­stead di­ver­si­fied his op­er­a­tions in­to the dry goods busi­ness.

Yes­ter­day, he opened Man­galie Foods Whole­sale and Re­tail Lim­it­ed at Fran­cis Lal­la Road, Char­lieville.

Man­galie start­ed a ceil­ing sup­ply com­pa­ny 16 years ago.

He said, “The di­rec­tors in the com­pa­ny de­cid­ed five months ago to en­ter the dry goods mar­ket be­cause we saw a grow­ing need for food sup­plies glob­al­ly.”

He said prices were fluc­tu­at­ing up­wards and con­sumers were find­ing dif­fi­cul­ty to make pur­chas­es be­cause of re­duced spend­ing pow­er.

Man­galie said the di­rec­tors de­cid­ed to di­ver­si­fy and source dry goods at cheap­er price to en­sure that all could eat.

He said, “Al­though we are in busi­ness, we saw a greater hu­man­i­tar­i­an need. Peo­ple were com­plain­ing about the prices and a lot of peo­ple had to starve. We had the ca­pac­i­ty to di­vest and this op­por­tu­ni­ty en­ables us to give back to the wider com­mu­ni­ty at prices they can af­ford.”

Man­galie said the com­pa­ny would be sell­ing oil, rice, sug­ar, beans, chan­na, dhal, and re­lat­ed mer­chan­dise.

He said the move to di­vest has al­lowed the com­pa­ny to hire 10 ad­di­tion­al staff mem­bers.

Man­galie said high freight costs are the ma­jor rea­son prices have gone up.

He said in June 2020 it costs US$3500 to ship a con­tain­er from Chi­na.

That cost is now US$15,000 and go­ing up, he not­ed.


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