Lockdown’s harvest: Niche grocers are filling many more baskets

NEW DELHI | BENGALURU: The lockdown in India has upended businesses across the country and pitched a new class of entrepreneurs to the fore. While supply chain disruptions have wreaked havoc with established organised trade, a small bunch of niche enterprises selling organic vegetables and fruits have suddenly seen their sales rise exponentially.

The phone has been ringing off the hook st Anushka Noshir Panthaky’s The Greens, an organic food delivery in Mumbai. From about 20 deliveries of organic fruits and vegetables a week, she’s now doing 50 deliveries with her staff of three. The story is similar even for relatively bigger boys like Sahyadri Farms, delivering bulk orders to housing societies in Mumbai, Thane, Nashik and Pune.