Infy, Wipro to have organic veggies for staff

Infosys and Wipro are planning to use organically-grown vegetables in their canteens pretty soon.

Both companies are in talks with a Bengaluru-based non-governmental organisation, International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture, for the supply of organically-grown vegetables to their canteens.

ICCOA facilitates farmers to market their produce and has recently entered into a tie up with Safal, a unit of Mother Dairy Foods Processing Ltd, for the sale of organic vegetables through outlets in Bengaluru.

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"Presently, there are 450 farmers registered with us who are growing organic vegetables and we are in the process of providing them market linkages.

"We have just tied up with Safal and are in dialogue with other retail chains like Spencer's and Food World. We have also had preliminary talks with Infosys and Wipro for supply to their canteens in Bangalore," said Sunil Kumar S, principal consultant, Aum Consulting Inc, a Chennai-based consultancy firm and director of ICCOA.

He said presently ICCOA has helped farmers to form three groups in Devanahalli, Doddaballapur and Chikkaballapur in and around Bengaluru.

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The farmers' groups are presently supplying 3.5 tonnes of organic vegetables to Safal everyday.

To begin with, selected 14 varieties of vegetables to Safal, which are sorted, graded, cleaned and packed for sale in their 22 outlets in Bengaluru.

The daily capacity will be scaled up to 10 tonnes in two months.

He said, ICCOA has designed a safety label with the help of certifying agencies that will be carried on the products.

Manoj Menon, executive director, ICCOA, said they were also in dialogue with state-owned Horticultural Producers' Cooperative Marketing and Processing Society Ltd (Hopcoms) for supply of organic vegetables.

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"I have spoken to the director of horticulture department and he has promised to identify select half a dozen outlets in Bangalore city for launch of organic vegetables," he said.

Nearly 850 hectares of land in and around Bengaluru is presently organic agriculture and 450 farmers are growing vegetables.

The organic products' business is estimated to be worth Rs 450 crore (Rs 4.5 billion) in India of which exports account for Rs 350 crore (Rs 3.5 billion).

Presently, about 1.2 million hectares is under organic cultivation across the country.