WHO WE ARE & SUCH

What is Origin by Organic Mandya?

All these years we have done justice to our farmers by offering them a premium price for their produce, but for our customers we somehow failed to offer a fair price because of the substantial over-heads we had (for ex: Store Rental Expenses, Store Staff, Storage at the Warehouse and the Stores, Wastages, Upfront Payments to the Vendors, Same Product from Multiple Vendors etc.).

We really wanted to do justice for our customers too, but with the traditional retail model this was never going to be possible.

Then we thought about the Club model for e.g. Bangalore Club / Indiranagar Club / Bowring Institute / Century Club, these high-end clubs provide world-class services and products to their members at the lowest possible prices. The prices are always lower than the outside market and these Clubs sustain through a monthly membership fee.

We thought why not form a digital membership club for our customers, so that we can offer them the best products at the lowest price and thus “ORIGIN” came to be. Origin by Organic Mandya is a direct to consumer membership program where we source organic produce straight from the farmers and deliver through our app and website without adding any markup. It’s time everyday essentials (greens and staples) we consume, are good for you as well as the planet. And it’s time everyone has access to the chemical-free, best produce and not just a few.

Organic Food has always been out of reach for most people and we are changing that by delivering the same high-end organic produce to you directly, cutting all the middlemen involved in the supply chain.

And since there are no markups going for crony Middlemen (who are known to eschew profits leaving nothing for farmers), we can pass on those benefits to you as well as our farmers, making our produce much more affordable.

We have a threefold mission—

1. help provide sustainable livelihoods to farmers, and
2. offer 100% honest organic food to people, and
3. make Mandya district chemical-free.

Why is your membership not open to the public, why should I request for membership, why can’t I directly become a member by paying the monthly membership fee?

Organic produce is not available in abundance, as of now the produce is limited. We are encouraging more and more farmers to go Organic.

As and when we add more farmers, we open corresponding memberships to the customers. We don’t like to compromise our quality just to serve more members.

We are not in this after money, but have been striving for 100% honest, quality, and service. We would love to see a Happy Farmer and a Happy Customer rather than having a million members.

How can I become a member at Origin Club? I am unable to find options to become a Member, rather it shows a request for Membership.

Organic produce is not available in abundance, as of now the produce is limited. We are encouraging more and more farmers to go Organic.

As and when we add more farmers, we open corresponding memberships to the customers and if you have requested one, you will get an invite with a link. The membership will be awarded on a first come first serve basis.

Why is the Origin Club only in Bengaluru?

This is a new and unique model, we want to make our consumers happy. There will be a lot of learning in the initial phase. After fine tuning the model we will be expanding to other cities.

Why should I become an Origin member and what are the benefits of such membership?

We have been in business for the last 4 years and have served lacs of satisfied consumers across the strata, coming from diverse backgrounds. Our supply chain, the back-end is powered by a co-operative society with 12000+ farmers, supported by a thriving, active consumer community that has been with us from day one.

In all these years, we have been looking at core issues people are facing in adopting, or rather, getting back to Organic and the main complaint is that it is expensive (to go organic).

But we believe we have figured out how to do this right: You pay a nominal amount to become a member. The Origin membership then allows you to enjoy high-end quality produce at super affordable (we mean, at cost!) rates without any markups or margins!

So, what all is available? Well, we have almost everything you find in the kitchen!

How can you give your product at such low prices? Can we really trust you?

In the following table, we’ve outlined the difference between regular Retail model vs the Origin Club model, this will kind of give you a rough idea on how the costs can be lower.

Cost Parameter	Retail Model	Origin Model
Warehouse Stock Cost	Yes	Yes
Retail Store Rental Costs	Yes	No
Retail Store Expenses	Yes	No
Wastages	Yes	No
Marketing Expenses	Yes	No

What are the benefits of being a member?

You will be getting genuine, organic produce at cost value.

On top of that, when you buy from us, you help a farmer family become truly self sustainable while also helping reverse the Climate Change.

We also have ensured the freshness of the produce is maintained, and to such a level that, just as an example, when you order flour/atta from us, we powder it fresh and give it to you!

Are your products Organic, Natural, and Non-GMO, etc?

For us, food is medicine and the only kind of medicine that you can eat lovingly and joyfully. We don’t take this responsibility lightly and have paid an enormous amount of attention to ensure the products we make bring joy to the people and help them heal.

Our products are mostly certified organic (you will find relevant symbols on the packaging).

Some of our products are not certified, this is because we don’t want to burden our farmers with a third-party audit fee. But it doesn’t mean that the produce is not Organic, Mandya Organic Farmers Cooperative Society has its own testing lab, we diligently test all the produce (Certified and Non-Certified) in our labs before it reaches out to you. Apart from the third-party audits and our own testing lab, we also have field officers on the field monitoring the entire growth phase of the produce.

If you are still suspicious, you are welcome to get our products tested in any of the NABL accredited Labs.

When the word Natural is mentioned on the packaging, it is largely so because a farmer would have adopted Natural/Organic Farming recently (less than 3 years) and wouldn’t have the necessary Organic Certificate (to obtain Organic Certification you should have mandatorily practiced Organic Farming for more than 3 years), this doesn’t mean that the Farmer’s produce isn’t organic, just that the validation is lacking!

What is Natural Farming? What is Organic Farming? Natural Farmers say Organic Farming is bad, causes this and that blah blah...

The literal meaning of the word “Organic” is “Life”, anything which grows with the only help of Organisms is called “Organic”.

For some reasons “Organic” name has been mis-interpreted by various organizations and in the name of “Organic”, people have started selling Organic Fertilizers, Organic Pesticides etc.

We at Organic Mandya have taken the literal meaning of the word “Organic”, we strictly don’t promote any outside Organic Fertilizers, Organic Pesticides to our farmers but rather encourage our Farmers to produce all the required inputs through their Cows and Bullocks at their homes.

Even though we practice Natural Farming we mostly don’t use the word “Natural” because the word “Natural” has been corrupted even more than the word “Organic” over the years. Today you can even find a “Natural” rat poison at the stores near you!

ZBNF (Zero Budget Natural Farming) folks tend to differentiate between Natural Farming and Organic Farming, saying the former is better as Organic Farming may involve organically made fertilizers and certain species of Earthworms which are not of native kind.

The Organic Farming practice we advocate is akin to Natural Farming in practice, i.e. we agree ‘Organic’ fertilizers should not be used. In fact, many of our farmers have implemented the ZBNF farming model pioneered by Shri Subhash Palekar ji, which is more or less what our ancestors practiced decades ago.

Non-GMO

All of our products are non-GMO. India has never allowed GMO seeds except Cotton and the farmers from whom we source are fiercely pro-planet and have been sowing heirloom seeds for generations. On top of that, the organic certificate also entails Non-GMO testing.

We want you to buy joyfully, with certain calm and ease: you won’t have to think twice as it’s all carefully sourced and curated.

Is your packaging Plastic-free?

Product Packaging

We have been testing eco-friendly, zero plastic packaging for the past couple months now. The current packaging is a high-grade plastic and is recyclable. As we move ahead in our journey you will see us moving to completely non-plastic, eco-friendly packaging over the next few months.

Shipment Packaging

The cardboard/paper we use is 100% recyclable, and wherever possible, we have made sure to discard bubble wrap and such plastic materials and use alternatives that are better for you and the planet.

A Note!You can also drop plastic waste to our stores where we have Bins placed just to collect such waste and we are going to make sure it gets recycled properly.

Why our prices are so low?

• Net margins are not added to the product cost
• Only the Product Cost + Packaging & Processing Cost + Transportation are billed to the member----Transparent Pricing
• No middlemen
• Organic Mandya earns modest money only from the membership fee which covers our overheads
• While our warehouses are on par with international standards our offices are simple and less expensive (no fancy infrastructure)
• Low inventory cost, quick turn around of the inventory (no storage on the shelf)
• Modest management salaries
• No marketing budget, we believe in our product quality and quality products market themselves
• Most of our operations are located in and around villages or Taluk headquarters (like Mandya, Piriyapatna, Kanakapura) so our operations cost is at least 50% lower than operating from a city center

Is Organic Mandya into philanthropy, why this low rates, what will OM gain out of it?

• We are not into philanthropy but we are the product of this society and it's our responsibility to give back to our society by not hurting ourselves and hence this transparent & truthful model
• Low rates? Organic is not for rich it should be for all, that's why we have figured out this new unique sustainable model where it doesn't hurt you nor us
• We always believed in being fair to our society, we did our best with our farmers. But with our customers, we couldn't be fair because of the overheads we had in our older model (Supermarket model). We wanted to be fair even to our customers but it was never possible with the offline supermarket model, that's when we thought about this membership model where we can offer transparent pricing to our customers without any net margins and we could sustain with the modest membership fee that we charge.
• Why should the customer pay margins for each and every product he/she pickup? why can't there be a fixed margin? these things made us come out with this model
• OM doesn't believe in money, it believes in our age-old traditions like honesty, trust and fulfilling its social obligations. If we can live up to these factors, the money will surely follow

Why it's not open to all public, why can't I become a member instantly?

• Organic Farming is still in its infancy, the supply is low but the demand is high
• Depending on the production from our farmers we take members if the production increases our membership opens up
• We don't want to corrupt ourselves by adding more members and supplying them with junk
• We want to be an honest, trustworthy organization rather than a multi-billion dollar enterprise, for us Quality matters and not the Quantity
• Once you request for a membership you will be put in the queue, as and when we tie-up with more honest certified organic farmers we will open the memberships to you

ORDERS & SUCH

Where is my order?

It will take us upto 48 hours (2 days) to deliver your order. You should be able to track the order by tapping on the (Profile Icon -> Account -> Track My Order) button.

If it’s more than 60 hours, please feel free to email us at (help@origin.club) or talk to us at (+91 95909 22000)

What is the delivery charge?

We charge a nominal amount (₹49 per order, regardless of the order size) that helps us fulfill the delivery on time.

While we would love to, in a city like Bengaluru known for its bad traffic, we don’t want to promise 4-hour delivery that takes a toll on our delivery partners as well! We suggest you stock up and order more in one go!

Can I return my product? What’s your Return policy?

If you are not satisfied with the product quality and would want to return the product, you are always welcome to get a replacement or a refund.

Please contact us at (help@origin.club) with details like Batch Number, picture(s) of the product, and a description of the issue at hand and we will help you out within 24 hours!

If your shipment was damaged or defective, we will be happy to refund or replace it within 7 working days. Please email us with a picture of such shipment.

MEMBERSHIP & SUCH

My membership is almost up. What happens next?

To make this a hassle-free experience, your membership will automatically renew.

I’m not able to log in/access my account!

You can reset your password by tapping here or tapping on the "Forgot your password?" link. If you need further help, please email our team at (help@origin.club)

I’d like to cancel my membership

Ah, sorry to see you go. To cancel your membership account, just email us at (help@origin.club) and we will get back within 24 business hours.

If you don’t mind, please let us know why you’d like to cancel the account and we will do everything possible to win your trust back!