Three years ago, Shruti Malhotra, a dentist by profession shifted her focus from those pearly ‘whites’ to some micro ‘greens’. She was fascinated by these tiny plants that looked ‘Little’ but were ‘Giant’ powerhouses of nutrition. When she analysed global trends in various developed countries, it showed a very pronounced usage of microgreens by households. But in India its usage was and still is limited to high end restaurants mainly as garnish. Shruti recalls, “We identified the opportunity and started it mainly as a B2B business. These microgreens are a powerhouse of nutrition and taste. Hence the brand name Little Giant and the tagline “Little in size, GIANT in nutrition and taste.”
Soon she found that it is indeed a very tough business to build and to sustain. Microgreens are not easy to grow. They are like “Babies” literally and need a lot of care and delicate nurturing. What’s more difficult is their storage and packaging. “The shelf life of this product is a couple of minutes if not handled well. Hence we had to have a farm closer to our clients and we set it up in the outskirts of Mumbai. Then we had to set up a distribution network which ensured that the right order quantities, in the right product mix reached the right customers within a few hours,” she explains.
The challenges and the opportunities
The seasonal changes brought about its own challenges. It took the company about two years of testing to diarise what grows best in which months of the year and under what temperature and humidity conditions. Because she decided not to use any fertiliser or chemicals to grow these products, and wanted to grow these in perfectly natural conditions in proper sunlight and no artificial lighting etc, her task was even more difficult. She points out, “The decision not to use any pesticides and fertiliser was the key because these microgreens are mostly eaten raw, and our customers loved this idea. We now have presence in Punjab as well. From there we cover North India.”
The company grows all its produce on its own farms. After harvest the produce goes through 3 levels of quality checks before final packaging to ensure that the customers get produce of top quality. The response was very encouraging. Shruti reveals, “In fact after a few months of microgreens supplies, our customers (read restaurants and high end catering companies) started asking for edible flowers too. We had the infrastructure and manpower – so we did our research and testing and soon introduced a wide variety of edible flowers too. This helped us open up new opportunities simultaneously.” So Little Giant ( thelittlegiant.business.site) now grows and supplies all types of microgreens and edible flowers. The company is FSSAI certified and has a trademark for the brand.
Speaking about the sustainable product market in India, Shruti elucidates, “With increasing food and fibre demands coupled with degradation in quality of water because of use of excessive fertilisers and pesticides, the repercussions are bound to be reflected on freshwater biodiversity conservation. It is therefore very important that we design and implement a farming system that is sustainable. Covid-19 has only further increased our disposition towards healthy eating along with simple and sustainable living. The DIY Grow Your Greens kit fits in perfectly during the current scenario.”
Taking microgreens into homes
The company’s new innovative product DIY Grow Your Greens kit has evoked very good response from customers like: “My kids are learning the important virtue of patience in this fast paced world where they have grown up in an environment with everything available on a click of a few buttons”; “Little Giant Grow Your Greens kit has brought warmth to my home”; “The first thing when I get up in the morning and do is check out how my greens are doing today”; “I have grown so fond of them that now I don’t want to harvest them.”
What was behind the idea? Shruti says, “Covid-19 gave us the opportunity to take this exclusive product and make it more broad based. We have been wanting to make this product available in households. But the conventional B2B model could not be replicated here because of obvious short shelf life of the product. At the same time in current times we were seeing that everyone had more time at their disposal and DIY was an emerging trend. We coupled all the three and the Grow Your Greens kit was born.”
What’s more, there is an increasing inclination towards eating hygienic and healthy food that builds immunity. The superfood called microgreens grown in these DIY kits offer all these benefits. Researches have shown that microgreens have almost upto 40 times higher concentration of nutrients (minerals, vitamins, anti-oxidants, etc) than their fully grown counterparts. Microgreens are also better than sprouts because they undergo photosynthesis hence apart from higher nutrient concentration they have fibre too.
Shruti adds, “It is a very simple and an elegant idea. We put all our past learnings into the product and eliminated all probable areas where one could err while growing their own microgreens like water, light and humidity etc.”
All one needs to do is place the specially constructed seed cartridge in the custom made grow trays and put an exact amount of water. There is a 2 to 3 days germination period after which the customer has to remove the top green-house layer and then the magic happens. The microgreens grow hydroponically in about 7 days to “fully grown baby plants” which are ready to harvest. Here also there is no use any chemicals since till the microgreens stage they can sustain themselves only on water, air and little bit of love and care. Shruti informs that customers across ages, all over India are loving this idea. It is a very thoughtful gift also.
Talking of future footprint, she says that there are no plans to export the product as India offers a huge untapped market. “As of now we have introduced only 5 varieties which are good in current season. We are planning to introduce many more varieties in coming months. We are also testing many other variants of the product like live trays, mixed varieties and very soon we will also have edible flowers introduced too. Apart from this we have many more offerings that are on the anvil,” she shares.
Instagram: littlegiant_greens
Also Read: This Indian company grows flowers that you can eat!
