Farm to plate

Riding the retail revolution in India, the Godrejs launched at Bombay’s Warden Road in January 2005 the first of its stores known as Nature’s Basket, with the second store scheduled to open at the Shopping Arcade, World Trade Centre, Cuffe Parade this July. Nature’s Basket sells fresh vegetables, fruit and herbs, with local as well as exotic varieties like artichoke, broccoli, bamboo shoot, kiwi, oregano, thyme and water cress sharing shelf space. An in-house nutritionist provides information on the nutritional value of the products that Godrej is said to source directly from farmers. There is also a juice café vending health drinks like spirulina and wheat grass as well as a florist. The store provides home delivery in neighboring areas. "We have worked in close association (under the banner of Godrej Agrovet Limited) with farmers for over 35 years helping them develop their produce. We now feel that the time has come to introduce our consumers in urban areas to this 100 percent fresh farm produce,” Tanya Dubash told reporters.

Marketing president Dubash at Nature’s Basket; Godrej’s new fruit juice flavors

The Godrej Foods division has also launched exotic fruit juice flavors under the XS brand name. "Kiwi Kraze” is a combination of kiwi-apple-lemon, "Berry Blast” blends strawberry-cherry-black currant and "Triple Tickle” combines apricot-peach-apple. An orange variant is "Santra Swing.” The new XS range is priced at Rs 15 for 200 ml and is accompanied by a "Super Sipper” — a perforated straw that sprays the juice like the spurt of a fountain! Godrej XS has also introduced a "100 percent natural range” in orange and apple under the name "Only Juice,” priced at Rs 72 for 1,000 ml.