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“We are on mission to become an 'Amul’ brand in eggs”
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Monday, 07 June, 2021, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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 Eggoz from Nupa Technologies is co-founded by Abhishek Negi, Aditya Singh, Uttam Kumar and Pankaj Pandey. The company is working to make sure more rural farmers take up egg farming. “With technologies like Internet of Things (ioT), we have ensured an easy entry barrier by introducing an asset-light model to improve the income of poultry farmers. In fact we are providing an invaluable lifeline to rural farmers, by placing them in a better position to feed their families and send their children to school,” Abhishek Negi, co-founder, Eggoz, tells Nandita Vijay, in an email interview. Excerpts:
What is the current scene of egg farmers in India?
There are two problems faced by egg farmers. Egg farming is a very capital-intensive business, so that makes it inaccessible to the large majority of small to medium scale rural farmers. Secondly, farmers don't get timely veterinarian support, academic advisory, or quality feed, and hence their yield and income are on a very lower side.
How is your company positioned to support and garner revenues from this space?
The company has successfully devised an asset-light model for egg farmers with the support of technology. Our farmers are on-boarded into this streamlined program where they receive technical and veterinarian advisory support, supported with IoT (Internet of Things) based tech. This model helps as many rural farmers to get into egg farming by making their capex entry barriers very low. We successfully helped rural farmers double their revenue with the help of our proprietary model. We also guarantee to buy off the entire produce of our farmers by making direct payments into their accounts.
What is kind of tech adoption by the company?
The company has developed a farm management app, which makes the farms smarter with IoT sensors that capture environmental data. We are also in the process of patenting its cost-effective farm management technology. We are in the process of using the huge data that we received to make relevant predictions using artificial intelligence.
How important is the need for date of expiry of eggs and do you see the need for regulation from FSSAI here?
FSSAI mandates a set of rules for all packaged products, which includes packaging date and an expiry date for packaged eggs category. But they don't have a specific set of regulations for selling eggs. Anybody can sell eggs in the open without an expiry date. FSSAI also doesn't have any grading pattern for eggs nor mandates that all eggs should have a stamp or sticker like in the West. Most of these branded eggs are collected from faraway farms after laying and are stored in a warehouse for days together before its packaged. By the time it reaches an urban consumer, it is at least 10-12 days old and loses all its nutritional value. We package our eggs within 36 hours of laying and make sure the eggs are replaced in the stores every 7 days, so that customers get access to fresh eggs with all their nutritional value from their closest farms, just like milk.
Tell us how you are able to package within 36 hours of laying for retail distribution.
We do not own most of the farms. We onboard farmers into our streamlined program, provide them with the aforementioned support and technology, and run their farm operations. Our R&D team checks the quality of the eggs based on the stringent parameters that we have laid for ourselves and makes sure each farm serves customers within 200-300 km of the farm. This makes our logistics easier and we are able to bring to the retailer eggs that are fresh, within 36 hrs of laying.
How many poultry farmers are you associated with and where?
We currently work with rural farmers across the states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, and Punjab. As when we engage on boarding new farmers from different locations, market expansion and access to varied consumer market comes in.
Namakkal is the poultry capital of the country, do you have plans to serve this region?
Yes, we want to make sure that our technology benefits farmers across the country, thereby increasing the protein production and consumption of our country. We are on a mission to make India a protein-positive nation.
Throw more light on the Happy Hens, Healthier Eggs program.
We provide nutritionally balanced, herbal feed and health supplements that are devoid of DDGS (Dried distillers grains with solubles) or any other harmful chemicals for healthier birds and better 'feed conversion' metrics. We believe that better the health of the birds, the better the yield, happier the hens and farmers are. We believe in supporting all farmers with flock sizes as low as 250-1,000 hens also.
Are there similar ventures like yours in the country and what is the kind of competition you face in the field?
Not that we are aware of in the egg-farming space. Otherwise, there are a lot of agri-tech companies coming up in India because agriculture and technology are one of the largest growing industries.
What are your key strengths to stand apart in the market?
Our success is in the asset-light tech-based integration approach and in establishing a positioning in the market based on 'freshness' which has been at the centre of this whole idea right from the launch of the brand. Our eggs provide an invaluable lifeline to our rural farmers, putting them in a better position to feed their families and send their children to school.
When was the funds raising activity held and would you scout for more?
We have already raised US$ 2million from Avana Capital and Rebright Partners and are an emerging FMCG brand in the egg-protein space. We are using our funds to grow the brand, and further, strengthen the unit economics of the business. Funds always are a lifeline for the rapid growth of any start-ups but having said that we are currently operating with sound unit economics and want to build a profitable & sustainable company which is a true win-win for us, our existing and future investors.
What are the challenges encountered by companies like yours in this business?
Our biggest challenge is to build awareness to the customer so that they choose the right food/brand of eggs. Eating or buying clean food or eggs in our case is no more an easy task. This is because we don't look much into its ingredients or the kind of feed given to the poultry or try and read between the lines of many marketing gimmicks and jargons. You will be surprised that a closer look at even a pack of bread will stop us from eating those. All these products have ingredients that include preservatives and additives masked under some scientific name which many of us are not particularly aware of.
What are your future plans?
We are on a mission to become an 'Amul’ brand in the space of eggs and egg-based products. This will provide a nationwide identity. This seal of approval from the rural farmers will make it a brand that consumers can trust. We want to create excitement for adults and children by introducing a range of fun, healthy and tasty products with the goodness of eggs. We want to lead from the front and develop this egg protein category with a high consumer-centric approach.
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