Despite the advanced technology we have today, it is painful to see our farmers still struggling in processing their raw material. Most of them still sell their produce in market yards to middlemen and get paid a very low cost for their produce. The primary reason for this is due to non-availability of low cost processing mills in the villages. Thus, in order to provide the right price to the farmers for their produce, two techies came together to start Our Food, a Hyderabad-based startup, that facilitates low cost processing and warehousing to farmers.
Our Food is founded by V Bala Reddy (B.Tech, NIT Warangal MBA, IIM Ahmedabad ) and Raghu Prasad M (B.Tech, NIT Warangal). Bala Reddy says that their motive is to make farmers sell end-products rather than raw materials. The firm is currently dealing with dal, fruits and vegetables. Their clients include Big Basket, Hypercity, Ratnadeep and others. The strength of Our Food lies in getting farmers together and provide shared services at farm level. Farmer franchises are created with select farmers and help them by setting up Green Houses, Mini Cold Storages and Mini Processing Mills. Our Food also provides financial support to farmer franchises directly by investing and indirectly through bank loans. The produce output from the farmer franchises is managed & channeled through Our Food Hub Center.
Incubated in the Nasscom 10,000 startups programme, the company constructed its first facility in Zaheerabad and is coming up with another one in Pargi, Vikarabad. Our Food Pvt Ltd has even won the Business Excellency Award in the Agro and Food Processing category at HMTV BEA 2017 for developing decentralized warehouse-cum-processing units for farmers, helping them get to get improved farm revenue. Our Food is a full line Bulk Food Supplier. It provides fast, safe and reliable food supply to the customers from farm directly to store. This has no adulteration and no middleman. Interestingly, Our Food centers are run by renewable energy.
The Advantages of Our Food:
Warehouses close to farm Farmers have easy access to warehouse facility and can choose to either sell or store the produce. Mini Processing Centers Warehouses with mini processing centers enable to increase the value of the final product early in the supply chain. Logistics with demand aggregation Reduced transportation cost in the cycle. Fair & automated price recommendation Price is calculated based on the quality parameters assessed through scientific equipment and comparing it with the market price.
To establish farmer linkages, it allows farmers to keep their produce in its warehouse for free. Going ahead, it plans to start four centres simultaneously from October out of which two will be in Nizamabad and Warangal each and two will be in Andhra Pradesh. All these four centres will be operational by March 2018.
