PUNE Have you ever ever ever questioned the place the meals we eat comes from? Is it latest, nutritious and healthful to eat? What kind of practices are adopted all through farming, harvesting and ultimately transporting the produce to your shut by mall, retailer, vendor or dwelling? Pondering this, two professionals – Ganesh Nikam, an agri-finance information from Pune and Sanket Mehta, a banker from Mumbai – obtained right here collectively to assemble agricultural startup ‘Nutrifresh’ in 2019 with the thought to supply healthful, pesticide-free and residue-free meals to clients at big.
At first…
Mehta was working as a supervisor at Central Monetary establishment of India, Pune when Nikam met him for only a few agri-financing-related proposals in 2012-13. The duo constructed a robust rapport as they interacted often regarding their work.
Says Nikam, “I obtained right here from a farmer family background and wished to do one factor for farmers. After my MBA, I did a job in a corporation. I was working as a funding information with a specific cope with agriculture and agriculture-related actions. I helped plenty of dairies, agro-processing industries, and meals objects to spice up funds.”
“After I met Mehta, he talked about he was being promoted and wanted to relocate to Assam. He was sad and by no means ready to go. So, I like to recommend to him that he could be part of me in consulting actions with the primary goal being on agriculture and related actions. Mehta had faith and perception in me after which left his job and we every started our consultancy service,” talked about Nikam.
Fingers on agricultural actions
Sooner than actually getting into into the ‘enterprise’, Nikam and Mehta continued with their consultancy firms for only a few months. Mehta used to journey from Mumbai to Pune often and expert the usual distinction between the agricultural produce acquired at Mumbai and Pune and on the farm provide itself.
Sharing their preliminary days of the journey, Nikam talked about, “We generated some revenue from our expert firms and decided to take a position that amount in agricultural actions. We thought why not start one factor of our private. Since my father had a 4-acre land in Daund we decided to do sugarcane farming there. Earlier, we used to do flood irrigation nevertheless instead of that, we decided to go for precision farming and regular agricultural practices along with drip irrigation. In 2015-16 we cultivated sugarcane on that farm and purchased bumper produce of 110 tonnes. We had been persevering with with our session initiatives and used the revenue to fund the agricultural mission.”
Shift from sugarcane farming to floriculture
With the preliminary success of sugarcane farming, we decided to try our fingers in floriculture talked about Nikam. “We purchased on lease one different 4-acre land which was subsequent to a dam. Whereas doing the market survey of flowers, we realized that there is inconsistency and gaps inside the present and demand of flowers. Whereas researching, we narrowed down on orchid which is imported in India. We thought why not produce it proper right here and due to this fact we prepare a polyhouse on the 4-acre farm,” added Nikam.
Nikam and Mehta had been helped by Nikam’s brother Yogesh Memane to rearrange the poly residence unit as he was earlier working at an identical unit. Nonetheless, the unit economics of poly residence and floriculture needed to be matched.
Nikam talked about, “We had taken finance from banks to start the mission in 2016-17. In its place of doing orchids on all of the farm, we did 3 acres of Orchid, 20 guntha of roses and gerbera each. The rationale behind this was orchid has a gestation interval of 1.5 years, which meant we would have liked to bear the payments for this period sooner than the exact flowering would possibly start. We decided to get higher the payments like labor bills, electrical vitality and completely different payments by way of the revenue generated from roses and gerbera.”
“Within the meantime we had started promoting and advertising and talked about the flower produce with some retailers. We finalized one among many retailers who, with an exclusivity clause, decided to purchase all of the produce from us. With this, every our ventures proved to attain success in a short span of time,” Nikam added.
Hydroponics or soil-less farming
Even supposing the floriculture experiment was worthwhile, Mehta and Nikam knew that it had limitations in scaling up. The flower market is restricted to cities like Pune, Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru. Whereas researching new experiments inside the agriculture sector, Mehta obtained right here all through the thought of hydroponic or ‘soil-less farming’. Mehta and Nikam observed plenty of films of this method and seemed for some worthwhile initiatives in India. The duo realized that there have been only a few such objects in Goa, Chennai and Pune, nonetheless, each the objects had been too small in scale or mismanaged.
Mehta was trying to find worthwhile hydroponic objects when he obtained right here all through one in Talegaon. It was properly managed and one among many promoters was shifting base to Singapore. Mehta and Nikam had equipped to build up all of the unit; nonetheless, it didn’t bear.
“We had been trying to find land for almost one 12 months. We wished to appreciate two points – protect the land worth low and the location have to be such that the produce present have to be in keeping with the market. Due to this fact, we had been exploring the Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Konkan areas. In 2018-19 we purchased 10-acre land merely behind our present polyhouse unit at Devadi near Ketkavale in Pune itself. It was a bit dear nevertheless we decided to go ahead and purchased monetary establishment finance and completed all obligatory authorities formalities,” talked about Nikam.
The founder duo moreover purchased a chance to get a 250-acre land plot on lease in Phaltan. “It was accessible on an 11-year lease and we had submitted our tender utility. We launched this barren land plot under cultivation inside 3 months with obligatory pure certifications, and plenty of others. We’re producing fruits there and the plant is run utterly on automated processes. The fruit produce from there’s exported,” Nikam acknowledged.
Lockdown challenges
With the polyhouse unit ready and produce in hand, Nikam and Mehta had moreover completed tie-ups with e-commerce players, five-star inns, malls and completely different distributors. Inside per week of actually starting product sales, the Covid-19 outbreak started and the lockdown was imposed by the federal authorities.
“We had planted capsicum and cucumber and offered it to malls, inns, and plenty of others. Sadly, all these establishments had been closed and all our agreements had been positioned on preserve. We had a couple of export consignments to Dubai and Singapore which had been moreover caught midway. It was a struggling interval for us,” Nikam talked about.
“Initially as soon as we began our operations, we would have liked to decide on one alternative – to be on the retail facet or manufacturing or manufacturing facet of the enterprise. The retail space was already captured by the massive players and we had no choice nevertheless to be on the supply facet. All e-commerce, malls and distributors had only one request that the supply have to be fixed. Nonetheless, the lockdown modified all of the state of affairs. We had on no account thought of branding our private merchandise nevertheless we would have liked to do it by way of the lockdown. We had the Nutrifresh mannequin determine with us already so we decided to go ahead with it,” he added.
“When lockdown kicked in, we had 3.5-tonne cucumber in a position to sale nevertheless we had been unable to maneuver it. Since roadside garages and inns had been closed, drivers weren’t accessible. So, we made preparations for lodging and meals for drivers and labor at our polyhouse unit itself. With all precautions and Covid-19 protocol, we started delivering latest produce to prospects,” talked about Nikam.
Empowering women
Nutrifresh partnered with Tigressmoms, a neighborhood group of passionate and financially unbiased women, who helped them market and distribute their hydroponic farm merchandise all through Mumbai and Pune.
Nikam talked about, “We developed our private packaging, branding, web page and mobile capabilities on Android, and iOS. We deliberate the manufacturing as per demand and requirement. We had approached townships and big residential societies when Tigressmoms group which labored on women well being purchased in touch with us. They posted our message on groups and we equipped payment based on product sales to all women who participated inside the actions. Each women participant had a novel code by way of which product sale was acknowledged and payment paid.”
Mehta talked about, “The affiliation helped us with attain all through the dimensions and breadth of the cities with our merchandise. With women forming 80 per cent of our workforce, we strongly think about in empowering women and this partnership will solely reaffirm our dedication to it.”
Future plans
Sharing his views on the way in which ahead for agriculture, Nikam talked about, “Agriculture relying on monsoon will not be going to be sustainable. We now have to undertake protected cultivation and at present hydroponics is the easiest know-how accessible on this part. The one drawback of hydroponics is that it is capital-intensive.”
“We wish to improve inside the retail space nevertheless that part needs additional cash-burn and highly effective distribution channels. We don’t wish to be a cash-burning agency. Even the HoReCa part needs grade B produce nevertheless we don’t produce it and due to this fact that part contributes solely 10 per cent of our product sales. We’re at current focusing solely on huge townships in Pune and Mumbai to take care of our provide costs low,” says Nikam.
Revealing future plans, Nikam talked about, “Now we now have started salad provide at dwelling. If we take into consideration solely Pune and Mumbai space, the general inhabitants is about 3.5 crore. Out of this, 10 per cent (35 lakh) is taken into consideration to be consuming distinctive greens and salads. At the moment we have got reached solely 15 thousand prospects. We have not even captured 1 or 2 per cent of the market. Merely to cater to the Pune and Mumbai market, we’ll need 150 to 200 acres of land and even after development we’ll seize solely 3 to 4 per cent of it.”