Organic’s come a long way in Bangalore

While the ‘Bt or no BT’ debate rages on in India, a growing number of people in Bangalore are reaching out for food that is automatically exempted from the Bt argument by virtue of being grown on organic farms using natural fertilisers.

In recent years, Bangalore’s organic food market has charted remarkable growth if the many organic food stores mushrooming in the city are any indication, and experts agree that the city is one of the country’s biggest markets for organically grown produce.

However, organic food still continues to be a niche product, a reality that Varun Gupta, founder and CEO of Pro Nature Organic Foods, has been trying to change ever since he and his wife Nidhi entered the space in 2000. Pro Nature is an organic food brand that supplies cereals, dals and spices to supermarkets such as Nilgiris, Namdharis and Total Mall.

The idea, Gupta says, was to make organic food more accessible to consumers by making this option available at their regular supermarket. Pro Nature has a network with nearly 1,000 farmers across the country. Bangalore, as Gupta sees it, has optimum potential for organic food. “When pesticides were found in Pepsi and Coke, Bangalore saw many converts,” says Gupta while adding that Bangaloreans are always open to new concepts.

HK Jayaram, an organic farmer and founder of Era Organics, India’s first internationally certified, exclusive organic food store, agrees that the city is a budding market with big possibilities. He cites general awareness about organic food being a healthy option as the prime reason. For Jayaram it all began when he realised that stores weren’t keen on stacking organic produce.

Additionally, farmers like him always found it tough to get a fair price from middlemen who seldom buy farm produce at market rates. The best way out, he felt, was to open an organic food store himself, eliminating the middleman and thereby becoming a one-point contact between farmers and consumers.

Merchandising brand Fab India entered this space two years ago.

Meetu Rawat, merchandiser at the Koramangala store, says awareness about organic food is on the rise and she’s seen a steady increase in people opting for their organic atta, maize and even ready-to-eat snacks. Pricing could be a deterrent for the organic food business as most products are priced higher than conventional options available at the Kirana store. While the likes of Gupta and Jayaram agree that at the moment organic food isn’t very price-friendly, they attribute it to the style of farming, which requires heavy investment. “To begin with, the farmer must be certified that he employs organic farming methods, which is expensive. Secondly, one can’t use easy means of controlling disease or pests as chemical treatment of any kind is a big no. So practising organic farming poses risks of crop-failure to the farmer. In addition, it is labour-intensive and since it demands careful storage minus chemicals, warehousing grains and cereals, too, becomes expensive — all of which contribute to the MRP,” says Gupta. Jayaram feels the premium price acts as an incentive to motivate more farmers to implement this technique, which may increase supply and perhaps stabilise prices to some extent.

Yet, as the market matures, rising demand has contributed in narrowing the price disparity. Jayaram says he’s managed to reduce the gap from a 100- 200% to 20-30%. “In fact”, he says, “I sell vegetables at a rate that is almost at par with its regular counterpart.”