Birla to tap farmers for retail stores

The Aditya Birla Group, which rolled out its retail chain More recently, is studying the possibilities of creating linkages between its corporate social responsibility projects in the farm sector with the retail business of sourcing farm produce for its stores.

Rajashree Birla, Aditya Birla Group director and head of the Aditya Birla Foundation, told mediapersons on Tuesday that the company had been running several projects for farmers in the areas surrounding the different plants of the group.

These included training and orientation of farmers for good agricultural practices and efforts to improve yield, she said.

"We may consider sourcing farm produce for the retail stores from these farmers," Birla said, adding that the initial projects with farmers were under way in the Thane district of Maharashtra.

Aditya Birla Retail, the retail business of the group, made Pune the first destination for the rollout and opened its third store in Pune on Tuesday. The group plans to open 14 such stores by June 15.

Chief Executive Officer of Aditya Birla Retail Sumant Sinha said the company had opened three collection centres around Pune for farm produce to be sold through the stores. He said there was an arrangement with about 150 farmers for the supply of a variety of produce.

"We have told them about the specifications and quality we need and they supply us directly, which ensures freshness and cost savings," Sinha said. He said the company had obtained the necessary licence to procure farm produce directly from the farmers.

Rajashree Birla said the group was in the process of extending its CSR initiatives to areas around its plants overseas. The first such exercise was a vocational training centre in Thailand, which had been started with an investment of 20 million baht, she informed, adding that similar projects would be taken up in countries such as China and Indonesia in the next few months.