Dry Fruits startup Farmley drives 35% rise in farmers income

Farmley is a full-stack dry fruits and nut brand that provides high quality, adulteration free products to the end consumers. It drives maximum value to the farmer community by eliminating middlemen. Farmers in Maharashtra and Bihar have seen a 35% rise in incomes as Farmley’s value chain has eliminated middlemen and incentivized farmers to grow better quality produce. Further, close to 60% of the workforce at the processing units are women, and the startup has generated over 2.5 lakhs of annual employment hours for them.

The dry fruits and nuts value chain typically has multiple middlemen involved making quality control a formidable challenge. The unorganized nature of this market also erodes farmer incomes. Farmley’s full-stack business model is disrupting the status quo by sourcing premium produce, creating innovative food items (Eg: Farmley’s makhana pasta), and offering a wide variety of over 150 products to consumers.

Farmley has built deep back-end linkages with 5000+ farmers & producers and established a streamlined supply chain network. After building deep back-end linkages with over 5000 farming communities and producers, Farmley has emerged as a dry fruits & nuts specialist in India. By building direct linkages with the best producers in this category, Farmley is sourcing premium harvests and eliminating multiple points of adulteration.

Abhishek Agarwal, Co-Founder of Farmley, said, “Adulteration in this category is quite common and is a persistent pain point for consumers. For example, these days almonds soaked in water bleed artificial brown colour instead of leaving only a golden tinge. The root of this problem is the unorganized nature of the market. Through our full-stack model, we have successfully streamlined the value chain to provide consumers with high-quality dry fruits and nuts consistently.”

Subhadeep Sanyal, Partner at Omnivore, observed, “Farmley is reimagining the dry-fruit and nut value chain in India. By solving multiple chronic issues in this segment the startup is delivering an exciting premium experience to consumers and riding the clean snacking wave.” Recently, Farmley announced the launch of its new range of over 100 products. Earlier this year, the startup had also raised $7 Million in Series A funding led by Alkemi Ventures and DSG Consumer Partners.

Since the onset of the pandemic, this category has been witnessing steady growth as people have become more health-conscious. Farmley’s in-house R&D team creatively integrates nutrition into a variety of snacking options. The expansive range of products covers everything from everyday essentials and exotic niche products, to desserts, naturally sweetened with dates.

To date, Farmley has set up five farm gate processing units closer to the source of origin to ensure fair remuneration and strict quality check protocols. In the past 12 months, the startup has produced 4800 tons of dry fruits & nuts, 80% of which was sourced directly from the farmers & producers.