Category Archives: Entrepreneur

In his crusade to encourage organic products, Chennai-based Abdul Shukoor is bridging the gap between organic farmers and customers.

In recent years, we have seen a growing demand for organic products across households in the country. There is no doubt that the organic industry is making its way into the lifestyles of many, but expensive products are a concern. In Chennai, one man is trying to eliminate this concern by delivering fresh, affordable, and organic produce straight from the farmers to the households

Abdul Shukoor (34) is happy to have left his high-paying job in the telecom industry about two-years-ago to start making a difference. Stumbling upon a farmers’ market where he saw them selling organic products (vegetables, lentils, oils etc), Abdul was prompted to an idea that would benefit both organic lovers and farmers.

“After leaving my full-time job, I wanted to start something on my own. I sold A2 milk with a friend for about two years, and then I happened to chance upon the farmers’ market, where they were selling organic products. I felt like promoting this in more public places,” Abdul says.

Abdul then decided to procure, pack, and deliver organic products on a small scale to his small but potential customer base. To do this, he associated himself with a small association of organic farmers in Erode called Uyir. It has been a year since Abdul began his journey with the association, and he feels a lot is yet to be done.

“People love organic products and there is a growing demand for it because everyone is realising the ill-effects of chemicals used in farming. Uyir in Tamil means ‘life,’ and this small community of farmers are known for producing genuine organic products. With the culture of home delivery enticing more customers, I decided to start this venture on a small scale. Currently, I have 20-25 customers,” Abdul says

Owing to small customer base, Abdul is restricted to sell organic grocerieslike lentils, cold press oils, and rice along with salt, millets, sugar, jaggery and honey. To avoid wastage of vegetables which he would have to procure in bulk, Abdul is waiting for his customer base to increase, so that he can help the farmers by selling their vegetable produce as well.

Selling his products in public spaces, word-of-mouth marketing, and keeping constant touch with his existing customers has earned their trust in Abdul’s venture.

“The products I procure now are need-based. Customers give me a week’s notice on the products they require, so I buy the exact amount from the farmers. This way I can also ensure the quality of the product I am delivering to the customer. For the farmers, it’s a big deal that their products are sold in the city. I also courier these products across India with minimal shipping charges, based on the distance,” he adds.

Huge profits not important

Abdul realised one of the main reason for consumers to refrain from buying organic products was the cost. He felt the brunt of this when he approached several commercial spaces to sell his products.

“It is great that there are so many stores selling organic products, but they are too commercial. I sell my products by adding a margin of 15-18 percent, but the market adds more than 30 percent margin on the actual cost of products. My venture will make no sense if I added the same margin to my products. The idea is to provide quality products at affordable rates to consumers, so they can keep coming back,” Abdul says

The challenge

Leaving a well-paying job was not the only challenging decision Abdul had to make before setting up YSA Farms. Everyday is a challenge for Abdul who is now struggling to expand his venture with not much support. A one man army trying to do good to farmers as well as his customers, Abdul faces disappointment on a daily basis when he tries to encourage people at home to switch to organic products.

“Charity begins at home, but no one in my family is encouraged to take up farming or even switch to organic products. They tell me that I should rather sell my car, go abroad and work there so that I can earn more money. But that is not what I want to do. I think of this as God’s work, and a little relentless hard work from my end has helped reach at least an entry level in this sector.

Future plans

While Abdul is optimistic about his venture scaling up, he has set his mind on YSA Farms. He aims to set up his own spinach farm, and has been doing extensive research in the area of organic spinach farming. Currently in talks with land owners across Tamil Nadu, Abdul believes he can soon give many farmers an opportunity to grow spinach and other vegetables in these farms.

“I want to take this to farmers beyond Uyir. There are farmers in Pondicherry, Ooty and other places who can benefit from this system. For this I need to be able to buy more. I chose Uyir because they are very cost-effective compared to the rest of Tamil Nadu. But there are many farmers who have heard about what I am doing and want me to buy from them as well. I can’t do that now, but hopefully soon enough,” Abdul says.

Abdul Shukoor can be contacted on [email protected]

Everyday Gourmet Kitchen Foods Pvt Ltd offers fresh fried onions to commercial and residential kitchens, thereby taking away the pain of peeling, chopping, and frying onions.

At a glance

Startup: Everyday Gourmet Kitchen Foods Pvt Ltd

Founders: Satyajit Roy

Year it was founded: 2014

Where it is based: Mumbai

Sector: Food

Problem it solves: Offers ready-to-use fried onions

Funding raised: Bootstrapped

While some among us enjoy the laborious process of basting, baking and blanching to come up with a Michelin-grade plate of food for our loved ones, lesser mortals do appreciate any help to fix things quickly and easily.

Satyajit Roy’s family belonged to the former group. Coming from a Bengali family, mutton biryani was a weekly affair in his household. However, the indulgence came with a lot of tasks.

“One Sunday I left my house at 9 am to run an errand and returned around noon to see my poor mother, who had been chopping away for three hours, in a puddle of onion tears. I pointed out to my mother that a better use of her time would be to buy this product from the market directly, to which she replied that no such product was available in any of the shops that she went to,” recalls Satyajit.

A quick Google search revealed that no such product was available in the domestic markets, but it did exist abroad. At that point, he was struck by the thought that this may be a great solution for the domestic Indian market.

That was the beginning of Everyday Gourmet Kitchen in 2014. Under its flagship product, it offers fresh fried onions to commercial and residential kitchens, thereby taking away the pain of peeling, chopping and frying onions.

Multiple use cases

Multiple use cases

Satyajit says, “There is a 25 percent wastage of all onions that are grown in India. The reason being the farmers don’t get a fair price for the produce due to volatility of the markets and improper storage conditions. Since there is an abundance of produce we intend to make a dent in the wastage figure, which stands at approximately five million tonnes yearly.”

Traditionally, fried onions are used in the making and garnishing of biryanis of all types. This is one of the primary uses for EGK Fresh Fried Onions.

EGK’s fried onions are also used in multiple ways and across cuisines.

“For the Indian markets we find EGK onions are used as a great way to save time when making gravies,” explains Satyajit.

They are also consumed as a snack.

Currently, most of its revenues come from the B2B segment, where it sells large volumes to restaurants, caterers, flight and railway kitchens, just to name a few in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Karnataka. It also has a retail presence in 300 outlets, mostly in South and Central Mumbai. “We hope to have a retail presence in the major big box retailers within the next three months and hope to open up in other states the rest of the country within the next six months,” Satyajit says.

EGK currently claims to sell about 30 metric tonnes of fresh fried onions every month, which means that it processes 150 metric tonnes of raw onions.

Satyajit says, “Our factory is currently upgrading to be able to produce 100 metric tonnes of fresh fried onions (500 metric tonnes of raw onions) by the end of April.” The team size of EGK Foods is around 100 employees with 70 people being labour.

Onion knight

Satyajit is fondly known in food circles as Onion Knight. He is a serial entrepreneur and has a string of startups that saw little or no success before EGK.

EGK Foods was bootstrapped into existence in December of 2014. Besides getting the finances right in the initial stages, dealing with a volatile onion market was another challenge. Over the last three years, it has raised a couple of rounds of investments from friends and family to help build the factory and manage working capital.

EGK claims to have grown from sales of 30 metric tonnes annually in 2016-17 to 30 metric tonnes in January 2018. “Next year, we project sales of 100 metric tonnes per month,” he says.

Its revenue model works on the economies of scale and investing in the right technology to keep the operating costs down. It plans to have backward integrated farms by the end of this year where it not only offers buy-back guarantees but also technology that would help in increasing yield.

Ready-to-eat market

India’s heat-and-eat food industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22 percent and will be worth Rs 6,405 million by FY 2019.

Some of the bigger players in this segment include MTR, Maiyas and iD Fresh Foods.

Talking about what sets them apart, Satyajit says, “Since we spin the oil out of our final product we are able to provide a consistent and relatively healthier option to any other tissue paper-dried fried onions you may make at home.”

For the future it plans on adding a basket of products complementing fried onions that have been requested by existing clients.

“We plan to make most of our progress in the B2B and Hotel/Restaurant/Cafee (HoReCa) space next year as well as slowly make a presence in the retail market through a presence in larger retail chains. We also plan to start our export business for which we have seen tremendous demand over the last one year,” says Satyajit.

The group intends to collect Rs 5 crore and disburse the amount within next two months.

To revive the ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ among Parsi-Zoroastrians, the community has decided to fund business ideas from young members.

“There was a time when our community was known as the community of businessmen, but today our youngsters do not want to take the plunge, they are happy doing jobs. Through this initiative we are asking the younger generation to explore new avenues,” said Sam Balsara, founder, Madison World, who will be a part of the panel screening the ideas.

The World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce – India (WZCCI) and World Zoroastrian Organisation Trust Funds (WZTOF) have decided to come up with a platform, wherein entrepreneurs from the community will be provided with funds and mentors for their projects.

The group intends to collect Rs5 crore and disburse the amount within next two months. As a part of the plan, the well-to-do members from the community worldwide will be approached and asked to donate towards the plan.

“There are two aspects of the plan, firstly it will get the community together and secondly it will motivate the entrepreneurs,” Balsara said.