

Efarm. Indian Farm-to-House supply chain. (Needs a US copycat). - rokhayakebe
http://www.pluggd.in/indian-startups/efarm-farm-to-home-supply-chain-platform-3810/

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jonmc12
This is roughly the business model of a company I co-founded in Austin in 2005
- <http://www.greenling.com/>

Initially we marketed it as 'Farmer's Market to your Doorstep'. The model was
fairly well established when we adopted it. For instance in the bay area there
is Planet Organics, and several other competitors that have been around for
years. The model was also found in Seattle, Oregon, Denver, and several other
'green' locales. I'd imagine today there is some kind of farm to market
logistics service in most major metropolitan markets.

Additionally, there is a non-profit version of the model called co-ops. Here
members are supposed to be stakeholders in a farm, and there are simple
logistic systems to distribute produce, etc to each of the members residences.

In India the customer base is likely different. US Customers for the
commercial farm-to-market concept are generally out of greenness (ie,
consideration for the earth, or organic farming) or convenience (particular
families with newborns). Members of the non-profit co-ops are likely driven by
support for local farms and greenness factors.

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bmj
Co-ops, or CSAs, are becoming increasingly popular, as are "buying clubs" for
farms that don't offer CSAs. I could see something like this to work well with
small farmers who don't offer CSAs but still hit the farmers' market circuit.

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anthonyrubin
CSAs are one alternative in the US.

<http://www.localharvest.org/csa.jsp>

The above site provides a search feature to find local CSAs as well.

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shaunxcode
Seriously - what a great idea! I have wanted to work on something like this
for some time now. There are already food co-operatives which have
distribution centers and managing teams of volunteers/recipients worked out.
Now we just need to combine something like what the article describes with
that infrastructure. The only thing is unless you are shrewd there is not much
of a mark up to be made so I see it as being more of an awesome project to
work on and less of a "start up".

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daydream
You're right that there's not much money to be made - the cost is in the
distribution. There are companies here in the US (such as Boston Organics)
that provide this service, but the higher cost of labor/transportation (gas
and refrigerated trucks, in some cases) when compared to India is what hurts.
You either end up with small profit margins, or a cost to customers such that
those who are interested don't perceive the service as being a good value.

Now, that being said, I could see this working if you targeted a
geographically small, very dense area, and had your distribution center there.
Then you could get deliveries from farmers and not have much distance to
transport the goods yourself. I'm thinking an area the size of say the
Mission/Noe Valley/Castro/Potrero Hill in San Francisco.

How well this all scales, and could you make a big business out of it - well,
we've had a bunch of supermarket delivery businesses that have come and went,
haven't we? But I bet someone smart could come in, innovate on what's already
been tried here in the US, and make a nice living for a small group of people.

