Why we do what we do?
Author : Team UB
Updated : 03/May/22
Uzhavarbumi Agro Products Pvt Ltd is a farm-fresh dairy products company in Chennai. Our primary objective is to provide an alternate towards the consumption of adulterated milk. In today’s market, any packaged food item can be suspected to contain at least a little amount of preservative to keep it fresh beyond its time in a store. Milk is a dairy product that is being consumed worldwide, by people of every age group from a newborn to the elderly. Hence it is UzhavarBumi’s prime motive to make fresh and unadulterated milk accessible to the consumers. Mr. Vetrivel is always flushed with the question, why he chose to do this? So this blog post is an answer to everyone who thought of this.
The direct beneficiaries of Uzhavarbumi are our Suppliers (individual farmers with cows and women self-help groups who supply milk by procuring milk from farmers), then our Customers most of who want to actively support farmers for their quality products and finally our Staff who have worked day and night to get the Milk from the farmers to the houses of our customers. The running of this company positively affects more than 2500 households.
Vetri was on the verge of quitting his job when the Jallikattu protests were gaining rapid momentum around the city. It was a life-changing event for Vetri. The root cause of the Jallikattu protests lies within Vetrivel’s vision, the native breed oxen were abandoned and without the sport, people will have no reason to raise these oxen and the probability of them being sold to slaughterhouses will be very high. Jallikattu protest sparked the motto of protecting the native cow breeds in Vetrivel and his brother Panneer Selvam.
Indian native breeds like Kangayam, Bargur, etc are rich in providing nutrients, especially through their milk, dung, and urine. Hence a cow is preferred to an ox because of the numerous benefits which in turn leads to the abandoning of oxen or being sold off to the slaughterhouses because the animal doesn’t give any monetary benefit throughout its lifetime. However, the oxen play a major role in keeping the breed population alive through the mating process. The kings in the ancient Tamil Nadu introduced the game called, Jallikattu or Yeruthazhuvuthal or Maadu Pidithal. This was a convincing reason for the people to raise oxen as the game has a possible chance of bringing a great amount of wealth.
During the same time, they conducted research in milk adulteration from which they found several adulterants are being added at various stages of the milking process.
Vetri’s trip to rural India helped him a great deal in understanding how the supply chain for Milk works. This knowledge was vital when setting up the supply chain for procuring milk from nearby villages of Madhuranthagam. Initially, he had communicated with almost 300 farmers and began to collect and supply the milk. Thus was born Uzhavarbumi.
Phase 1: He collected milk from 15 farmers
Phase 2: He collected milk from 50-60 farmers within the first 45 days of founding UzhavarBumi.
His vision was to make the best nutritious milk available to all the people in cities like Chennai. As he witnessed huge gatherings of people to fight their way out, he found his vision to make pure milk accessible to the public, particularly children.
Uzhavarbumi does not own a dairy farm as we acknowledge the fact that farmers in India are facing a critical situation. India, particularly the southern states witness a lot of suicides and deaths of rural farmers. As a small initiative, Vetri works along with rural farmers of Kanchipuram to uplift them. Uzhavarbumi provides a better price to farmers compared to other brands of the state who determine the price of milk, based on the fat and SNF content. As the climate, feed, health, and other factors change the fat and SNF, content of milk changes and so does the price of milk. But Uzhavarbumi rejects this math and provides the same price for the milk we get throughout the year. At Uzhavarbumi, 25 Women SHGs are being supported as a part of Uzhavarbumi’s procurement and we are expecting to employ and empower more rural women as new requirement unfolds.
In the future, Uzhavarbumi wishes to work better and more efficiently with our farmers. Our objectives include:
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- To conduct health camps for cows
- To educate farmers on better herd management
- To help farmers with financial aid
- To find alternative organic feed
- To provide medical insurance for the cows
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In today’s world, milk is passed on to several agents before it boils in our kitchens. These middlemen alter the milk contents by adding adulterants to increase the shelf life of the product and to make bigger profits.
Uzhavarbumi was initiated to establish a direct link between farmers and consumers by reducing the middlemen. We procure raw milk without preservatives from Dairy Farmers after which we do tests to make sure that the milk we provide consumers are adulterant free. Adding to that, Uzhavarbumi has avoided plastic in the packaging area as plastic contaminates milk. We use clean glass bottles and are safely delivered to your doorstep.
Our growth is defined by our that we serve as a friendly platform to the farmers who provide milk for our customers and get a good business deal in return. As we leap closer to our vision and goal, we are striving hard to set-up eco-friendly delivery procedures as much as practical. Uzhavarbumi’s goal is to serve more than 6000 customers within our third anniversary, which will intern also increase the number of women entrepreneurs we create.
Team UB
We Serve What You Deserve