At the Connecting Ideas With Money, Lounge47 session held on the 4th of May 2022, founder Vetrivel Palani pitched Chennai-based modern dairy scale-up, Uzhavarbumi (UB) Agro Products.
UB procures farm fresh milk from nearby villages/marginal farmers and rural women and after quality analysis and testing of samples packs and delivers it in sterile glass bottles across Chennai to a 120 different areas. The delivery is managed by delivery agents through an intricate UB Dealer moobile App. The customers of UB can track or make changes to their subscription on a UB Customer mobile App.
website:www.uzhavarbumi.com
The startup has set out to solve a couple of problems: 1. Milk adulteration 2. Farmer debt and suicide 3. Inequality 4. Unemployment 5. Plastic Waste
“In the market today, several adulterants are added to cow’s milk to increase its shelf life before it reaches homes. Uzhavarbumi procures farm-fresh cow’s milk and delivers it within 12-14 hours of milking after conducting the required tests. Farmers have been faced with serious financial problems in this era more than ever. Uzhavarbumi works with the farmers, not seasonally or temporarily but throughout the year, by procuring their produce on a day-to-day basis. We also offer to them a better market price, giving them a better and more stable source of income. As part of Uzhavarbumi’s workforce, we empower 38+ women in self-health-groups, by procuring milk from them to give them an opportunity to be financially independent. Even in urban cities, most young talented people are unemployed. Uzhavarbumi employs 100+ youth in the delivery process. From day one, Uzhavarbumi has always wanted to be a green business. We deliver milk in hygienic, sterile, and eco-friendly glass bottles. In 2021, we have avoided about 5960 kilograms of plastic packaging material by not using plastic pouches to pack milk,” says Vetrivel.
The Jallikattu protests in Tamilnadu, sparked the motto of protecting the native cow breeds, as they were abandoned because of the opposition to the sport. Without the ox, the breed population would die out. At the same time, through their combined research, the founders found out several adulterants were added to milk at
various stages of the milking process. They therefore decided to make farm-fresh cow’s milk available to urban homes, without adulterating the product, especially benefitting infants, children, and elderly people.
Team:
The founders are brothers – Vetrivel Palani and Panneer Selvam Palani. Both are IT professionals.
Vetrivel Palani
Founder and CEO
BCA Graduate with 6+ years of IT experience.
Panneer Selvam Palani
MD
BCA Graduate with 5+ Year of IT Experience.
