Healthy food choices at your fingertips

Farmbox.ae offers a subscription of organic fruits and vegetables that are delivered to your doorstep

Once exclusive to speciality health food stores, organic food is now a regular feature in most supermarkets, and in Dubai, you can shop for it from the comfort of your home in just four clicks. In November last year, Farmbox.ae started a subscription of organic fruits and veggies with home delivery all across the UAE. 
How it works
Log onto the website and choose from three box options - fruit only, veggies only, and a mix of fruits and veggies. Upon selecting the desired product and box size, you can choose to have it delivered to you every week or every second week. Adding to convenience, the service accepts credit cards online, eliminating the hassle of handling cash on delivery. 
Romain Ollivier, Co-founder of Farmbox.ae, says, "People can leave their apartment and we can drop off the box at the front of their door. They are not tied to any contract and can cancel whenever they want. The quality of our product is very good as we pay attention to the sourcing of what we put in our box."
The company first introduced only organic European products, which Ollivier highlights worked very well but because of the premium price they introduced another range of box offering a mix of conventional and organic produce. They offer products that come with an Organic European Certification.
"We try as much as possible to source our product from Europe and Australia," says Ollivier. "But we have also started working with a few farms locally; the problem is that they can't produce all year round. We are already in discussion with a few investors who are going to build organic farms in the UAE, with new procedures and technologies. I think in about two years, we will be able to produce the same type of quality as in Europe for the actual local price."
He shares that the response to Farmbox.ae has been great and just before summer they were delivering to over 1,000 customers every week. "The response shows that people are inclined towards eating more organic produce. We are hoping to hit 2,000 customers by the end of the year."
Ollivier highlights that the major benefit of consuming organic produce is that it uses lower quantities of chemicals and pesticides, compared to conventional products. "We would never put in our boxes those shiny apples you see in the supermarket as they are waxed. But there are others made with higher quality standards and we make sure we source only the higher grade," he adds. 
When asked about future plans, Ollivier shares that Farmbox.ae will also soon start office deliveries. "The idea is to introduce recurring deliveries of fruit boxes to offices. The office pays for it and we deliver fruits every day or week, depending on what they want. Our aim is to provide healthy options at the workplace."
Another project in the pipeline is Aquadrop.ae, which is exactly like Farmbox.ae and will provide home deliveries of natural mineral water. "We are planning to import water from the Italian Alps. The cost is going to be lower, and it will have varieties of plastic and glass bottles of sparkling and still water. It will be live at the end of August," he concludes.
Special offer: Enter the code KHALEEJ to receive 50per cent off your order.
- deepa@khaleejtimes.com