An average supermarket in the US stocks around 30,000 items on its shelves. Each month 20,000 products are trying to make its way upon those shelves. US is overloaded with choice and people feel overwhelmed with the time and energy they need for decision making about what to buy. Grossary shopping comes close to last on the most enjoyable things to do (Schwarz, Barry - The paradox of choice, 2004).
People will not take the time to look search the shelves for SIF products. So while the market is huge - the cost of entering the market just in this respect will be massive. Why do you buy mix food packs? Time savings in meal preparation.
US and UK citizens do not eat Indian dishes as regularly as Indians do. Moreover, the family size (i.e. the number of dish eater) are likely to be smaller than the Indian family size (much more single households), so the packages would need to be smaller, too. To sum up, expect smaller product packages and less numbers sold. (Produce little and distribute it much further than)
Competencies? High quality Indian side dish foods. Where do I particularly expect this to be served outside India? Indian restaurants and Asian shopping malls. So abroad first target to Asian shopping mall instead of directly to retail market.
So, strike a deal with such a chain, then license production to US and see how the whole thing develops and then decide later on whether to take the second leg and really enter the retail market.
