Entrepreneur Sajan Raj Kurup launches Saintfarm a new end-to-end e-Commerce Venture in Organic and Sustainable food. Saintfarm Agro LLP (also संत फार्म) (Saintfarmagro.com) is India’s first ever affordable 100% organic food company which is engaged in farming, processing, R&D, exports, E-commerce, and domestic retailing.
After acquiring 10 year old Ahmedabad based boutique organic retail company Arpit Organic in 2019, Sajan Raj Kurup’s has spent the last two years scaling up, forward and backward integrating to create the Saintfarm operations. From acquiring Organic farmland, aggregating organic farmers producers, setting up organic food processing & packing unit, building apiaries and recruiting the right supply chain partners to custom building an innovative Saintfarm app across IOS and Android to make it accessible to the whole country.
Saintfarm has 258 different organic products across categories including Fruits, Vegetables, Pulses, Grains, Cow Ghee, Honey among others. It has end to end ecommerce operations across all metro towns in India. Organic Farming – Saintfarm has set up farming facilities across agricultural land in Nasik – Maharashtra, Ahmedabad – Gujarat, Anand- Gujarat, Boriyavi – Gujarat, Nadiyad – Gujarat and Reengus, Khatu – Rajasthan.
At present, our supply chain covers more than 650 farmers Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal and the Northeast growing organic ingredients like cereals, pulses, oilseeds, spices to fruits, vegetables and herbs across The farms, products and facilities are certified for EU, USDA NOP & Indian NPOP standards.
Saintfarm aims to bring together around 15,000 farmers from across the nation in next 2 years Organic Processing – Saintfarm has set up its 1st processing unit at Ahmedabad, that meets with USDA, European and Indian organic standards. The unit holds the capacity of processing up to 240 MT per year of flours, dals & pulses.
Saintfarm aims to set up similar processing units at Mumbai, Jaipur, Bengaluru and Delhi NCR in near future to meet the increasing demand in next 2 years. By the end of the year 2023 the company’s processing unit capacity will increase to at least 1000MT per annum.
Organic Apiaries – Saintfarm has also set up own apiaries and produce pure, unadulterated honey. Currently, there are three apiaries located around North India, with more apiaries to be established in the coming spring.
Saintfarm has a working army of 2.5 cr honeybees! R&D & farmer training- Saintfarm’s inclusive model involves partnering with and mobilizing farmers and training them in organic agriculture.
Saintfarm’s team of agronomists and field staff work closely with the farmers, ensuring total control on the seed, soil, farming and harvesting and implementing global best practices in organic food production. Technology and Retail – Saintfarm has invested extensively in building a digital ecosystem to take the organic produce from the farm to the processing centers and then to the consumer seamlessly.
While the front-end od the app makes the organic choice as easy as swiping right; the back-end tech ensures integration with the farmer to ensure harvest happens only as per order thereby minimising wastage, processing centres and the delivery partners.
Sajan Raj Kurup, Founder of Saintfarm and of Creativeland Asia & Ventureland Asia, said, “Saintfarm has been a lot of hard work for two years of being connected to the soil and putting together an ecosystem of food that is really needed today. The Pandemic only strengthened my resolve to get more invested in the food business. With Saintfarm, I really want to make organic more affordable and mainstream across the length and breadth of this vast country and be a
significant contributor to the organic movement globally.
We made a strategic business decision to invest and our own create Agri-tech infrastructure. Saintfarm’s founding architecture is based on three tenets. Respect for the land we till. Respect for the farmers who till the land. And Respect for the produce that we grow. I sincerely believe that organic and sustainable living isn’t just a choice but
a right everyone must exercise.”
Partnering Kurup in the venture is Nehal Shah who retains a minority stake post the acquisition of Arpit Organic. And, Nehal comes with 12 years of experience in the organic sector and has been given the operational reins as the Chief Operations Officer for the venture.
Nehal Shah, Chief Operations Officer, Saintfarm said, “I have been in the organic sector for over 12 years, and I was looking for a like-minded person who is also very passionate about organic farming and environment consciousness. I met Raj Kurup and I shared my vision towards organic farming and food. At the end of our meeting, I knew that I have met a person who has the same vision and who can scale this up. We decided to chase our dream together and make it come true.”
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