The organic food producer AUGA group is introducing a new category of ready-to-eat organic products — grain dishes and curry bowls. The new products are nutritious, fibre-rich, gluten-free, and suitable for consumers who adhere to vegan diets. Ready-to-eat products that only need to be heated are now available in Lithuania. Since the beginning of 2023, the products are also being sold in the United States (USA), Germany, and Poland.

“We can see that ready-to-eat, health-friendly, organic food that only needs to be warmed up is becoming more and more popular both in Lithuania and beyond. This was proven by the AUGA-branded soups. We started manufacturing them in 2017 and today they are the most popular AUGA product available in 30 countries around the world. Seeing this trend, we have started to develop new products to complement our existing range of ready-to-eat products. In our interactions with foreign partners, both in Europe and the USA, when we visited various exhibitions and stores, we assessed new products in the markets and watched how the assortment is changing and what customers are asking for. Research of the market led to the idea of starting to produce ready-to-eat curry bowls and grain dishes,” says Laurynas Miškinis, Head of Organic Products R/D and Commerce at AUGA group.

The new category of dishes consists of: green curry bowl with mung beans and black rice, yellow curry bowl with mushrooms and chickpeas, red curry bowl with shiitake mushrooms and lentils, and buckwheat and carrots, oat and cherries, and oats and chickpeas dishes.

The basis of the grain dishes — oats and buckwheat. These are grains that naturally do not contain gluten, and are easy to grow in Lithuania. In some markets such as the US and Canada, buckwheat is regarded as a “superfood” because of its nutritional properties.

Curry bowls are designed to act as a complete and nutritious dish. They are rich in proteins provided by beans, chickpeas as well as fibre from vegetables and mushrooms.

According to AUGA group’s representative, product development took a year and a half. Their recipes were created in Lithuania using the insights of foreign partners about consumer habits in different countries.

“Our goal was to develop not only nutritious and fibre-rich ready-to-eat dishes. We have also taken into account the food consumption habits of different countries, the regionally predominant flavour palette, and we have offered products suitable for different markets,” says Mr Miškinis, adding: “we have many years of experience with a variety of AUGA soup flavours, and an extensive customer network that helps in market research, so we believe that the new product line will also be successful. This is also demonstrated by the fact that curry bowls and grain dishes have already made it to the US, German, and Polish markets before reaching the shelves of shops in Lithuania.

Grain and curry dishes in Lithuania are available in Maxima XX and Maxima XXX stores. These products will also soon be sold in Rimi stores in all the Baltic countries.