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Ms Yadav said that she and co-founder Mukeeta Manukulasuriya are also passionate about doing their part to build a more sustainable and equitable food system.
Ms Manukulasuriya, 26, a Sri Lankan, is a third-generation owner of a food production factory in Sri Lanka that is founded and run by females.
The startup works with and support smaller farm holders with transparent and sustainable farming processes.
“We’re now sourcing from regenerative farms where there’s visibility in terms of farming practices, how they treat their workers, etc,” Ms Yadav said.
“We also work with smaller farms so there’re fewer middlemen taking a cut and more income goes directly to the farmer.”
Regenerative agriculture is a conservation and rehabilitation approach to farming. It focuses on improving the health of soil to restore agricultural land that has been degraded by the use of heavy machinery, fertilisers and pesticides.
Being so selective with who they work with has its challenges.
“It’s tough keeping up with the big boys in the industry with their deep pockets,” Ms Yadav said.
Working with small farms means that output will never be as large as companies that work with industrial-sized farms, she added.
It would also affect how they price their products. However, Ms Yadav said that there is a big difference between what is competitively price and fairly priced.
“Pricing a product competitively can be quite dangerous because it becomes a race to the bottom at the expense of the workers or producers.
“Just look at tea — tea pluckers are paid lesser increasingly because companies are trying to drive costs down to price competitively,” she added.
“We are going to price our products fairly. We won’t be the cheapest around, but we believe that what we are doing offers value.”
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