Opportunities and challenges in food entrepreneurship: In-depth qualitative investigation of millet entrepreneurs
通过对25位小米创业者的半结构化访谈，发现消费者健康意识提升带来机遇，但缺乏认知、信任不足和价格高等挑战制约市场增长。
Consumer food preferences are undergoing a rapid transformation, and there has been a heightening of interest in eating healthy, sustainable foods. Food entrepreneurs are cashing in on the trend and are diversifying their existing offerings to include healthier options using alternate ingredients such as millets. However, these entrepreneurs face several challenges, and the actual growth of the market is lower than expected. The present study examines the opportunities and challenges faced by millet entrepreneurs. A total of 25 millet entrepreneurs were interviewed using a semi-structured qualitative design. Key opportunities include increased awareness of millets, people going back to their traditions, and informative food labels were the key opportunities, while a lack of awareness, lack of familiarity, preparation difficulty, sensory attributes, lack of affordability, inferior image, customer distrust, and millets’ longer gestational cycle were major challenges.