Bengaluru: Coorg, the Switzerland of India, is famous for its flavorful coffee, golden glazed honey, and aromatic spices. Taking this treasure to the global platform is ‘Nectar Fresh’. From forest honey to coffee products, authentic chia seeds to spices, the company has been marketing quality products. What is different about Nectar Fresh is that it has been helping thousands of villagers to find a livelihood. The person behind the popularity of these products is Chayaa Nanjappa’s, its founder.
From low to high!
According to Chayaa, she set up this brand when she hit the lowest phase of her life. She started her venture without a mentor or guidance or experience. However, today she is one of the highly respected women entrepreneurs in the country. From ministers to officials, keen learners to management students visit her to know how she is changing the lives of people while she built such a big brand.
Authentic honey collection
To begin with, Chayaa became an entrepreneur with Khadi & Village’s board-backed rural enterprise. Nectar Fresh’s most popular brand is forest, honey. The key stakeholder of this product is a pocket of the tribal population engaging in the honey collection. She is helping these tribal families to earn more through marketing the products across the globe.
Nectar Fresh has now diversified into many other agro-based food products like coffee, locally grown chia seeds, apple cider vinegar, and mother vinegar, high-quality spices with an intention to support the farmers from across the country.
Chayaa’s early life
Chayaa’s full name is Kuppanda (Paruvangada) Chayaa Nanjappa. She was born in Nalkeri, in Kodagu district. She pursued her education at the Christ the King School in Mysuru and later on completed her higher education in Central Bee and Research Training Institute (CBTRI) in Pune, in 2006-07. Initially, she started her career in a hotel. Later, she decided to become an entrepreneur, and working on this path, she is today one of the most respected women business leaders in the country.
Selling gold to start a business
After four year stint in the hotel industry, Chayaa becomes an entrepreneur. Her journey is very interesting. As she decided to start her business, she sold her ornaments to fund the project besides helping her mother and bank loans. After training at the Central Bee Research and Training Institute (CBRTI) in Pune she started her first unit in Bommanahalli of Bengaluru. But she was extended support by the Khadi India and Village Industries Board. She started her honey business with five villagers. She trained them in operating the honey-making boxes.
After an initial struggle, by 2008, Nectar Fresh had become a popular brand. In just two months after the product launch, she had 100 hotels as her customers. Big names like Le Meridian and others are also the clients of her company.
Achievements of Chayaa
The highlight of Chayaa’s achievement includes her training her uneducated and unskilled team of rural folk and ensure that they earn a good income out of the locally sourced products. Today Nectar Fresh products are considered the most preferred products in India’s high-end market. From Marriot, ITC, Hyatt, Radisson, Walmart, Spar Hyper Market, or the highly quality conscious Ayurveda and Pharma giants, Nectar Fresh has been their most trusted brand.
Social impact
One of the important aspects of Nectar Fresh’s growth story is its social impact. The company is able to bring smiles to the faces of hundreds of people through innovative approaches. But the company is involved in empowering the tribal folks by supporting them in various ways.
The company is enabling small farmers to trade their own products so that they don’t need to be dependent on a middleman. Earlier, the major problem faced by these local growers was the lack of purchasers. However, Nectar Fresh has come as a savior, assuring them a complete buyback. It is helping them to come out of the vicious circle of middlemen and poverty.
Tribal Girl Child Education
Another area where the company is making a significant contribution is free education for tribal girl children. The company launched an initiative to provide free education to the girl children, utilizing a considerable part of the profit from the company.
“We intend to educate the girl child and also support them in the future,”
says a passionate Chayaa Nanjappa.
Products
The Nectar Fresh products include forest honey, Apiary honey, and Unifloral Honey. Other products like coffee, jams, etc for which rural India is known for are also winning the hearts of the consumers. The company’s natural fruit jams are without preservatives, color, or flavor. Roasted and filtered coffee is 100% natural without chicory.
In the year 2010, she married, Kuppanda Rajappa Muthanna, a well-known businessman from Kodagu, and the couple has a daughter named Niyama.
