27 July 2020
Enterprising traders import popular Indian fruit and veg
IT HAS been raining Indian mangoes in Woking over the last few weeks. Two enterprising women working independently have sourced and supplied the king of fruits to local families in a year when travelling to Indian stores in Hounslow and Southall to buy mangoes seems like a distant memory.
For the Asian community, summer season is incomplete without mangoes, which come in many varieties, each with a distinct colour, shape and fragrance.
Eaten on its own or used to make a range of delicacies from pickles to smoothies, the fruit is so popular worldwide that more than half of India’s produce is exported.
Jagruti Adhiya, of Woodham Lane, started sourcing mangoes from her cousin’s farms in India when prices of imported fruit and vegetables began to skyrocket at Asian shops because of a lockdown in India and the UK.
“The exorbitant prices here didn’t seem sustainable so I contacted my cousin, who owns farms in India and supplies mangoes to Tesco and Aldi, and decided to source through him directly,” Adhiya told the News & Mail.
She claims that her customers receive mangoes and vegetables straight from the farms in India within 24 hours, and without the involvement of any third party, making them much fresher than the items sold by supermarket chains.
To minimise wastage and contact, Adhiya only takes weekly orders of the exact quantity ordered by her customers via a Google form. She delivers sealed boxes on the day that they arrive.
In just a few weeks she has sold several hundred boxes of mangoes to her customers in Woking and Guildford, made popular mainly through word of mouth and recommendations made by her friends.
With the mango season coming to an end, Adhiya has also started sourcing seasonal vegetables from India to cater to local demand.
Usha Rani Ranganathan, who runs a food catering business from home, has been sourcing mangoes through other big suppliers and has been selling them across Woking, Farnborough and Fleet since May.
She started with 20 boxes and has grown to as many as 60 boxes per week. “In the first week I sourced mangoes mainly for my food group members,” she said. “With passing weeks, the word spread and I ordered as many as 60 boxes in a week.
“There is a lot of local demand for the fruit and we plan to source mangoes directly from my home town in India from next year.”
For further information or to order, email Usha at [email protected] or contact her at 07735 703475, or contact Jagruti at 07931 567739.
Credit: Woking News and Mail
