New players join the retail boom in Punjab

The great Indian retail boom seems to be catching on in Punjab. After big corporate houses and Punjab farmers, Namdhari Seeds promoted retail chain called Namdhari Fresh has joined the agro-retail bandwagon.

Namdhari Fresh, a chain of retail outlets selling farm-fresh produce, stocks a wide variety of fruits and vegetables, grown with minimum use of pesticides, in their farms near Bidadi (Bangalore), Machhiwara (Ludhiana), Ooty and Solan (Himachal Pradesh).

Ludhiana outlet of Namdhari Fresh is company's first outlet of Punjab and 20th outlet in the country (15 in Bangalore and 4 in New Delhi). It plans to open 10 more retail outlets in Punjab by the end of this year.

"Each outlet will be opened at a rented accommodation with an investment of Rs 70 lakh. We plan to open three in Chandigarh, three in Ludhiana, two in Jalandhar and two more in other parts of the state. Slowly our outlets will come up all across the country," informed Rashpal Singh, deputy general manager (north), Namdhari Seeds Pvt Ltd.

Another Doaba-based farmer, Baljeet Singh Dosanjh has joined hands with other growers to launch "Veggie Wonders", a retail chain of fresh food items at Jalandhar and he also plans to come up with four more such outlets in the next few months.

Another example is Sandhu Organics, a retail store selling organic food in Jalandhar. Owner Kulwant Singh Sandhu found it convenient to sell his own produce, which he grows in his fields in a nearby village. Sandhu plans to open a new outlet in Ludhiana.

Jalandhar Potato Growers Association is also all set to come up with its own fresh food retail chain. Jaswinder Singh Sangha, group head, said that they are a group of around 150 farmers with large tracts of land.

"We also have our own warehouses and a well-developed transport network. We will allot different crops to different farmers. So, one farmer will do tomatoes, while the other grows green chillies, for instance, to save us procurement hassles."