From Black Rice To Ahimsa Honey: Startups Are Cashing On Buzzing Organic Food Market

How sweet would the honey be from the bees that were put to sleep by singing a folklore? Interestingly, that honey is also called the ‘Ahimsa’ honey as no bee was harmed in the process. Ruchi Jain, Founder of Taru Naturals, sources the honey produced exclusively by the tribal community, the Kattunayakan, in southern India.

Sourcing chillies from Naga community to sourcing black rice from the group of surrendered militants in Nandura village of Maharashtra -- new age entrepreneurs are thinking about new ideas to cash on the growing fondness for the organic food.

Another entrepreneur, Ishira Mehta, co-founder of Crop Connect, left her job at World Bank four years back and travelled to 20 states to understand the nitty-gritty of farming. She started the brand called Original Indian Table with an idea of selling the popular crops of Indian geographies – branyard millets, red rice and bamboo rice. She has tied up with 14,000 farmers and sell their products to upmarket hotel chains and grocery chains.

In June last year, Mehta tied up with Amazon India, an online platform. With almost negligible sales in the first few months, the company now books the order for about 10 products per day. “Our sales are doubling every quarter,” 36 year old Mehta to BW Businessworld at Women Economic Forum, happening at Aerocity, New Delhi.

Consumption of organic food, literally, sounds like an urban phenomenon. However, Mehta has interesting insights. “We thought the orders for our food will majorly come from Mumbai and Delhi. But we are getting majority of orders from relatively smaller towns such as Ranchi, Patna, Coimbatore and Thiruananthapuram.” This makes the market for organic food even more attractive.

Meanwhile, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies including ITC and Britannia, are also foraying into the business of organic food products, especially millets. For Instance: MTR Foods has committed to use more millets in their products. App based grocery seller, Big Basket, is also promoting organic products.

But there are hiccups as well. While accustoming to the taste of organic food is one challenge, the price difference between the organic and conventional food is wide. Price of basmati rice is around Rs 175 per kilogram whereas price of bamboo rice is Rs 220 for mere 400 grams. “The price of organic product can be more than the conventional varieties anywhere by 20% to 100%,” said Jain who has done masters in environment management and change from University of Oxford.

Companies offer recipes with every pack of product. For instance: If you purchase black rice, you will get a recipe card on ‘how to make black rice risotto’. “However, problem of high price could only be tackled with the growing demand. The economics will play the role and production cost will come down.”

According to the Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (Apeda), Indian farmers produced around 1.35 million tonnes (mt) of certified organic products in 2015-16 which include all varieties of food products.

Apeda believes the overall market of Rs 4,000 crore under the organic value chain would hit Rs 10,000 to 12,000 crore by 2020, with the similar increase in export.