Trend Radar
Separating durable category trends from temporary noise: what is accelerating, what is peaking, what is fading, and what to do about each.
Durable signal, not temporary noise
Week of 9 June 2026
The category is generating more signal than ever, and not all of it is durable.
The trends that compound, bold flavour, single-serve formats, quick-commerce and AI discovery, are accelerating with real demand behind them.
The trends that look exciting but thin, exotic global flavours and protein as a full line, are noise or watchlist until repeat proves them.
This page separates the two: trend strength against trend velocity, so the founder spends attention where it pays.
Emerging: rising, but unproven
Worth watching, not yet worth betting on. Velocity is high, strength is still forming.
AI-assistant discovery
MediumA new shelf is forming; absence compounds as the cohort grows.
Build citable crunch-and-proof content and earn mentions.
Farmley is already the brand assistants name first.
Proteinification
LowBuilding, but unproven in makhana; the serious-protein buyer reaches elsewhere.
Test one transparent protein SKU; do not bet a line.
Adjacent brands flirt with protein; no makhana protein winner yet.
Kids health snacks
LowA real but trust-gated opportunity needing mild flavour and parent trust.
Validate a mild kids-safe variant before committing a range.
Open Secret leads parent trust; makhana is under-developed for kids.
Functional / wellness snacking
LowClaim ceiling and trust ceiling are not ready for 2026.
Watchlist only; do not build functional makhana this year.
No major competitor has claimed this yet.
Mostly noise in makhana so far; watch for credible entrants.
Accelerating: where the category is moving
Real demand, open whitespace, rising fast. These show the strongest momentum.
Bold flavoured makhana
HighThe category is splitting toward flavour; a signature flavour is the flag to plant.
Own peri-peri as the signature and lead with it.
Farmley is racing to occupy the flavour shelf with breadth.
Single-serve impulse formats
MediumThe widest open format lane, and the incumbents are slow to it.
Ship a single-serve impulse pack for the desk and late-night.
No major competitor has claimed this yet.
No major brand has claimed single-serve; Farmley stays on large pouches.
Quick commerce as discovery
MediumThe craving now converts on a 10-minute app, not the pantry shelf.
Fix coverage and buy top-of-search placement on quick commerce.
Too Yumm! and Farmley already rank above you on category search.
Premiumisation of healthy snacking
MediumBuyers will pay premium when quality and value are visible.
Commit fully to the premium-flavour race; do not chase value.
Happilo owns premium gifting; the everyday premium lane is open.
Clean-label, low-ingredient products
MediumSpecific, checkable health proof is becoming table stakes at premium.
State clean-label specifics; replace adjectives with proof.
Open Secret set the clean-label benchmark the tier is judged against.
Peak: mainstream and durable
Already large. The edge is in owning them louder than competitors, not discovering them.
Crunch as the quality cue
HighCrunch is the category's quality proxy, your strength and the leader's weakness.
Make a consistent-crunch promise the brand's defining claim.
No major competitor has claimed this yet.
No brand owns crunch as a promise; you can claim it outright.
Better-for-you indulgence
MediumPermission, not discipline, is the winning register, and it is mainstream.
Lead with guilt-free craving plus crunch, not nutrition lectures.
Too Yumm! has mainstreamed guilt-free snacking at the mass end.
Declining and noise: do not chase
Fading velocity or thin repeat. Limited drops at most, never core strategy.
Plain unflavoured makhana
MediumStill large, but it is a discovery gateway, not where growth is.
Keep plain as a gateway SKU, not a hero.
Mainstream and trust brands hold the plain segment.
Exotic global flavours
LowBuzz on creators, thin repeat in the mass-premium Indian buyer.
Use as limited drops for noise; never make them core.
No major competitor has claimed this yet.
Korean and wasabi-style profiles spike, then fade.
Strength against velocity
Top-right is durable and accelerating. Bottom-right is emerging noise. Top-left is mainstream.
Who is riding which trend
Where competitors have already planted flags, and where the ground is still open.
Farmley
5 trendsToo Yumm!
4 trendsOpen Secret
4 trendsHappilo
1 trendsMr. Makhana
1 trendsTata Sampann
1 trendsSpend focus only on trends that compound
Act now on the durable, accelerating trends: Bold flavoured makhana, Single-serve impulse formats, Quick commerce as discovery, Premiumisation of healthy snacking, Clean-label, low-ingredient products. These are where demand, open whitespace, and your crunch advantage line up.
Test, do not bet, on the emerging trends: AI-assistant discovery, Proteinification, Kids health snacks, Functional / wellness snacking. Each is a probe with a clear kill criterion, not a line to fund.
Lean on the peak trends you can own: Crunch as the quality cue, Better-for-you indulgence. They are mainstream, so the edge is in owning them louder, not discovering them.
Ignore the noise: Plain unflavoured makhana, Exotic global flavours. Buzz is not repeat, and a gateway is not growth.
Separate the durable from the temporary, and Makhanawala spends its scarce focus only on trends that compound.
What we are still watching
The open questions, monitored signals, and tensions behind the conclusions above. Not everything here is a conclusion.
Several trends show accelerating search and creator activity.
Marketplace evidence for some of the same trends remains mixed.
- Which accelerating trends are durable, and which are short creator-driven spikes?
- Does bold-flavour momentum hold once novelty fades?
- Bold-flavour momentumModerate signal
- Single-serve formatsModerate signal
- Functional / protein framingEarly signal
Trend momentum is inferred from search, creator, and marketplace movement, not from sell-through. Direction is more reliable than magnitude.