Are you struggling to source fruits and vegetables during the coronavirus pandemic? Given the current restrictions and safety concerns, it might not be easy to step out often to the grocery store as you once did. The surge in demand for home delivery of essential items has seen many people becoming technologically savvy for survival.
Two techies from Thiruvananthapuram, Fariq Naushad, and Previn Jacob have now launched a start-up - Farmy - that aims at bringing the contactless and touchless aspect of commerce at the forefront in the city. This farm-to-home hyperlocal truck store delivers fruits and vegetables directly sourced from the farms to various housing societies and apartments in the city.
Farmy's operation
Residents of apartments, villas or residents' association can choose their preferred time slot and can pick the fruits and vegetables from the Farmy truck at their doorstep ensuring safe physical distancing.
Bookings can be done by calling or messaging them through WhatsApp. One person equipped with gloves, masks, and face shields will assist the customer at the truck counter.
To reduce physical contact further, Farmy has arranged cashless UPI transactions through smartphones. The trucks are also equipped with sanitizers.
If the residents are happy with the trial, they have an option to pre-order online at www.thefarmy.in before 10pm and get the veggies and fruits delivered next morning with their apartment/ house number labelled in order to ensure contactless delivery.
Farmy also has tie-ups with hotels and restaurants in the city where they sell veggies in bulk.
Pricing clarity, minimum wastage
The vegetables and fruits sourced by Farmy are sorted at their warehouse ensuring minimum wastage. They also ensure pricing clarity with proper split-ups in the bill. “Normally when people go to the local market, they rarely get proper bills. We believe that customers must also know the pricing of what they buy. It definitely builds up trust among each other,” says Fariq.
Farmy also has a guaranteed return policy for damaged items.
The road to Farmy
Techies Fariq and Previn quit their job in an IT software startup based in Rwanda, East Africa and came back to India two years ago.
Realising that nature is a potential area to explore, the duo came up with the idea of a sustainable alternative to plastic straws- papaya leaf stem. They also bootstrapped Greenikk Sustainable Ventures Pvt Ltd in Thiruvananthapuram to process the straws. They had won an award at the TATA Social Enterprise Challenge in January 2020 and was the first team from Kerala to reach the finals of the challenge. Their road to starting a company of their own wasn't easy but they moved on to further friendly ways of business after understanding the market.
The idea of Farmy came during the lockdown period as they realised that it wasn't safe anymore to go out to the supermarket to buy fruits and vegetables. “During the process of making papaya straws, we got in touch with many farmers and that came helpful when we thought of launching a truck store. We were also lucky to get funding from angel investors in the US,” said Fariq.
With the help of some people with National Institute of Design (NID), Ahmedabad, they designed the truck for Farmy delivery service. Farmy was flagged off by Thiruvananthapuram Mayor K Sreekumar on August 9. Farmy will begin its full-fledged operations on August 17.
Reach Farmy at: 8086200055
