Commerce, Govt of India Jyotiraditya Scindia and Chairman APEDA Asit Tripathi are also seen in the picture
CHICAGO: With over decade long experience under its belt, a Hyderabad based grocery firm offering organic food Sresta Natural Bioproducts, plans expanding its presence in the US market offering huge number of its products brand named ’24 Mantras’ to cater to an increasing demand and craze for organic food.
After making its debut in Maryland a year ago, the company has geared itself to have a formal launch in Chicago very soon to touch base with retailers and consumers alike in Midwest areas. Its Maryland facility already caters to East Coast but the management headed by Rajsekar Seelam feels that the Midwest needs to be shored up too and Chicago would be an ideal location. The company has a huge warehouse and marketing set up in Elk Grove Village offering hundreds of its products ranging from Basmati rice, Sona Mukhi rice, varieties of flours, lentils-dals, cereals, cookeries and juices, etc – all organic.
An MBA from internationally famous business school in Ahmedabad, Rajsekar amassed huge experience in the grocery and agriculture field but was dismayed at the growing use of inorganic fertilizers and pesticides which have proved harmful to the consuming public. He felt an immense urge to do something in this area using his business experience to the best use getting organic food produced in the field and marketing the same in a systematic and organized way.
And he succeeded enlisting the support from small farmers who agreed to use only organic fertilizers, seeds etc for producing under strict Sresta supervision. In a talk to this paper, he said that he has currently the support of 18,000 small and medium sized farms spread over in 15 States of Indian Union, and the list is growing every year. Starting primarily with rice, the list of products that Sresta produces and markets has increased to cover about 700 items. It has added spices as well and has dabbled in processing food areas too offering organic cereals, snacks, cookies and varieties of juices.
He said that eventually he would go to California in West Coast and cultivate a large number of devotees of organic food across the country. Sresta’s turnover is going up leaps and bound and has been registering annual growth of 7-8 % in the minimum. Rajsekar is in USA and will be formally launching Chicagoland operations soon.
Ramesh Soparawala
India Post News Service
