The strangest travel that Puneet Jhajharia remembers is as quickly as he visited a village in Arunachal Pradesh — in a car, navigating the river on top of two rowing boats!
Over the last two years, Puneet and his company partner Ishira Mehta have actually travelled almost 70,000 km, across twenty states, looking to comply with farmers, make linkages and get hold of spine local, traditional ingredients that could be of interest to consumers in the metros.
Both do not have actually a background in food. However they have actually an interest in agriculture, a background in corporate business, and “are equally as comfortable travelling to remote villages, 10 days a month as they are talking to urban customers”. The last is a practical skillset.
While functioning for a global fund, along with a mandate to invest in spots that could alleviate poverty, Puneet discovered that while half of the global portfolio for the fund joined agriculture, in India there was not a single “agriculture business that we could invest in”.
Ishira, meanwhile, worked along with the Global Finance Corporation performing pilots, connecting along with farmers. The two realised that while the farmers “were performing interesting job and there were companies and businesses in the cities looking for interesting agri products and ingredients, The two did not speak the exact same language. There was a great deal of distrust.” So, in 2013, they decided to launch CropConnect, a via media, connecting farmers along with urban businesses looking for traditional and healthy and balanced meals products.
“We discovered that it was the middlemen that were making all of the money. We met a group of farmers simply half an hour away from Chandigarh, that would certainly hand over all of their tomatoes to a middleman, that came along with a small truck. He would certainly come back, hand them some your hard earned cash and say, ‘this is the sum I got… and this is your sum after my commission…’ This, as quickly as the location is so close to the city.”
At the exact same time, The two likewise realised the importance of sourcing healthy and balanced meals — “every farmer we met has actually divide plots of land, one for friends and family and the others for commercial use… there is indiscriminate usage of chemicals”.
The startup experiment has actually now taken the shape of the Original Indian Table, an umbrella brand, which seeks to delivering to consumers (The two B2B and B2C) traditional meals directly sourced from farms that engage in healthy and balanced and safe agricultural practices (not necessarily organic).
There are 12 products prepared for retail this month onwards — online and in stores in Delhi, initially, including the likes of the white munsiari rajma from Himachal, red rice puffs, garlic rock salt from Uttarakhand, jamun seed powder from Jharkhand, “bamboo-rice” and more.
While the B2B company relies on making these products accessible along with bakers, bistros and such, the B2C company is likewise looking at innovative and engaging formats. The duo, for instance, have actually made “curated” boxes — each along with a theme: Himalayan, Southern, Holi and more.
A set of recipes, guide regarding the farmers, and nutritional guide supplied alongside the set of 6 ingredients, retailing at about Rs 1,000 per box. However will certainly the young, urban customers bite?
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