Fresh Oil

By V. Shourabh

While the fast-paced world has resorted to readily available and packaged consumable products, there is one shop in Mysuru which prepares fresh oil from raw materials. The oil mill which is situated on Narayana Shastry Cross Road (between D.D. Urs Road and More Supermarket) swells with several customers who bring in nuts and get oil extracted within no time.

The shop ‘Mokambika Oil Mill’ prepares fresh oil right in front of the customers, thereby giving them 100% pure product. They prepare coconut oil, castor oil, groundnut oil, gingelly oil, niger seeds oil etc.  The shop is run by T. Manjunath and his wife Padma.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, Padma said, “We work in both ways. Most people bring raw materials in huge numbers and we extract oil and give it to them and some people come and directly buy oil from us. Generally, they bring in kgs of coconut (copra) and we prepare coconut oil. We have a good reputation as the oil is freshly prepared and we have regular customers who have a very good opinion about us. The mill and the machine is setup right in front of their eyes and the extraction process is simple and the oils are pure.”

The shop has enough space for the machinery and oil barrels as many people seem to be attracted towards this freshly prepared oil rather than the packaged oil.

Speaking about the prices of oils, Padma added that the rates vary as per the market prices of their raw materials and that it is always fluctuating.

She said, “If the customers bring in the required materials, then we charge about Rs.10 per kg to extract its oil. With the machinery that we have, it generally takes about 15 minutes to extract oil from 10 kg of raw materials. It is only groundnut that consumes more time in its oil extraction, while the other oils can be extracted easily and quickly. To get about one litre of coconut oil, they will have to bring about two kg of copra or coconut. We also extract oil from badam, only if the customers bring in about 15 kgs of badam.

But as badam is very expensive, none of our customers come for badam oil extraction.”

The couple have been running this shop since the last 20 years and have established an identity for themselves for giving pure form of oil to their customers. Oil, which is an integral part of the human diet, is one of the major factors for the healthy being of an individual.

With various packaged oil companies claiming stakes about the quality of their products, this shop that has been extracting oil right in front of their customers, has been gaining their trust and has managed to grow along with modern packaged products and marketing strategies.