Coronavirus outbreak: Trend-setting organic farms are badly hit

Farmtofork and cleaneating trends that helped many small and mediumsized urban farmers and ruled the Food and Beverage FampB industry in Mumbai for the past five years have taken a hit with the lockdown affecting the transportation of the produce With police officers also allegedly beating up vendors and delivery persons supply chain has completely gone for a tossFrom exotic English veggies to desi heirloom produce and even wild foraging urban farmers set up infrastructure to grow produce according to a chefs menu and created a supply chain of farmers across the state and nation to source black rice from Assam Chinese bok choy from Pune and glutenfree Amaranth flour from UttarakhandWhen restaurants took a call to shutter on March 18 it seemed like a temporary situation lasting till March 31 But the 21day lockdown announcement led to transport hurdles and labour scarcity with police officers even allegedly beating up vendors and delivery executivesAnd all this sent the supply chain for a tossLast Saturday police beat up Trikaya employees for delivering vegetables in Dadar Trikaya a vegetable growing firm has nine farms across Talegaon Ooty and Konkan Owner Samar Gupta said 70 per cent of his produce now lies unsold Before the shutdown over Coronavirus pandemic they supplied bulk of their produce to Taj Hyatt Marriott and ITC hotels Their restaurant clients included The Table Indigo and Slink and Bardot The lockdown has hit our business says Gupta Today his trucks are plying to Dadar with only onethird of stock where usually 25 vegetable vendors bought the produce Now only three to four are turning up Everyone is scared of being beaten up by police If my services are essential why are police beating up my men I want the government off my back he saidExotic produce goes wasteIn Saswad Sanmitra Pandharpur and Amrita Chaudhury run Offerings that catered to restaurants and cafes in Mumbai and Pune We are badly hit Our exotic patches of edible flowers will have to be completely culled We mainly grow superfoods and exotic veggies which is difficult to sell to a common man Pandharpur saidFarmers cluelessAta kay karaycha What do we do now This is the question farmers in 40 padas across 700 km in Ahmednagar district Jawhar Satara Palghar Jindal and Mokhada have been asking Shailesh Awate cofounder of OOO Farms every day since the lockdown The company used to supply produce to restaurants like The Bombay Canteen and Radha Krishna in Mumbai and Black Sheep Bistro in GoaShashwat Organics will suffer losses as the firms stocks are stuck at logistics partners warehousesWe have employed farmers to grow indigenous and heirloom produce of grains and fresh vegetables We insure their crop and the moment the harvest reaches our warehouse they are paid off Though they are not monetarily impacted and have food for at least two years they are a bit baffled right now said AwateHalf of their produce is stuck in a warehouse in Talasari while recently harvested crops are on the farms Due to the scare gram panchayats have shut the rice mills even though it falls under essential servicesApart from the heirloom tomatoes beans carrots and ratalu OOO farmers also grow exotic English vegetables like broccoli zucchini bellpeppers Romain Iceberg lettuce Due to the Covid scare our wild food vegetable supply which gave farmers a revenue bigger than paddy has come under uncertainties Once a year farmers foraged for wild food and grass that earned them fantastic revenue That went waste this year Awate concludedSuppliers take a hit tooSuppliers who source produce from farmers across India for the FampB industry as well as individual customers through their online stores have also taken a hit Ruchi Jain founder of Taru Naturals which sources organic farm produce from a network of 10000 small scale farmers across India said We supply to restaurants including The Kitchen Garden Smoke House Deli and Koko in MumbaiShe has 500 kg of black rice from Assam 500 kg of sticky rice and another 500 kg of buckwheat sitting in the warehouse We will wait till midApril to see what happens next I have a staff of 10 We arent paying salaries to our senior staff but daily wage workers will be paidShriya Naheta of Zama Organics says the challenges are logistic oriented and not with farm produce Produce from outside the state is not arriving and We are working with 25 per cent of the staff ie six people who live at the warehouse We only have four vans right now We are struggling to copeFor shipments stuck at logistics partners warehouses due to the government guidelines to the transporters for intra city and state transport Shashwat Organics founder Vaishali Gadgil says they will have to bear losses Her staff cannot come to work and they have stocks of dry and fresh produce at their office too Gadgil delivered dry produce like rice grain flour and ghee to restaurants apart from panIndia online retail sale where she also has products like chivda chutney and pickles made by women under MahilaBachatGadh If we cant deliver we cant buy from our farmers Harvest is standing as it is the season for watermelon orange and pomegranate We will wait and watchCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates