Hokh syun sun-dried vegetable packing unit

This unit makes hokh syun, the sun-dried vegetables Kashmiri families cook through the winter: dried tomato, brinjal, bottle gourd, turnip, spinach and fenugreek (methi). You buy vegetables in late summer and autumn when they are plentiful, slice and dry them in solar tunnel dryers (plastic-covered tunnels that trap the sun's heat and keep out dust and flies), then pack them in sealed pouches under your own label.

Each winter, sellers of dried vegetables fill old city markets such as Zaina Kadal and Bohri Kadal, but fewer families now have the time or rooftop space to dry their own. Vegetables from Dal Lake's floating gardens and farms on the city's edge are close at hand. NABARD's credit plan for the district puts food and agro processing at ₹80.56 crore.

You need an FSSAI registration, a small shed with the dryers on open ground or a roof, and a slicing and sealing setup. The hard parts: you must buy and dry nearly all your stock in a short window before winter, rain can spoil a batch, and the product must taste like home-dried hokh syun. Demand is also narrower than it once was, because fresh vegetables now reach the valley all winter.

Sell to grocers across Srinagar, at winter markets, and online to Kashmiri families in Jammu, Delhi and abroad.