‘Super food’ from Sara

The loss of essential nutrients in our fruits and vegetables has long worried scientists, doctors and consumers. One way out has been greater consump­tion of nutrition-rich, naturally-pro­duced healthy foods, also known as ‘super foods’. The trend has caught up in Nepal too and for the past two years, Sara Foods has been selling a variety of super foods, organic juices and essential oil to its Nepali customers.

Sara Foods, a trademark of the Sara Worldwide Business Pvt Ltd, is one of the very few Nepali com­panies specializing in health foods. With a physical store at Kalanki and a fully operational online store, Sara Foods sells imported and locally sourced food products that are dif­ficult to find elsewhere.

Their website lists products like alfalfa grass powder, quinoa, flax seed oil, rose tea and milk this­tle powder among other super foods recommended by health experts around the world for their high nutritional value and medicinal properties.

“We started by importing, pro­ducing and packaging health foods for our families and friends,” says Shankar Pandey,the owner of Sara Foods. “Then we marketed our products among the expat com­munity at various farmers’ market across the city. Today, we are a full-fledged company capable of meeting any market demand.”

 Having satisfied local consumers with its products, Sara Foods has been planning to sell abroad

Sara Foods is the brainchild of Pan­dey, who grew up among farmers in the agriculturally-rich Kapilvastu district in Province 5. This gave him firsthand knowledge of how crops and vegetables are produced and how some farmers use chemicals to enhance their produces.

“I don’t solely blame the farm­ers for using genetically modified seeds or pesticides to increase pro­duction,” Pandey says. “They have to take care of their expenses too. With the growing population to feed and lack of manpower to work in the fields, they may have no other option.” But Pandey also blames consumers who are now more con­cerned with how the food looks rather than how it tastes or how it is produced.

“This is why imported genet­ically modified apples sell more than our local apples from Jumla. They look better than our apples which are crooked and shapeless but which nonetheless are organic and tasty.”

A firm believer in the essential role of good food for physical and mental health, Pandey started look­ing for locally available super foods and thus Sara Foods took shape. The quest for organic and healthy nutrients also made him import some essentials from abroad. “On special requests of my expat cli­ents, I import products like quinoa, chia seeds and flax seeds,” Pandey says. “We sell over 200 products at Sara with high nutritional val­ues. This has allowed us to build a strong customer base in a relatively short time.”

Asked if the consumers are sat­isfied with the prices, which tend to be on the higher side compared to food products available at nor­mal grocery stores, Pandey replies that considering the quality and health benefits of his products, the prices are moderate. “When people are spending so much on junk and unhealthy food, our health products cannot be considered expensive,” Pandey reasons.

“Our products have health bene­fits that you cannot get from normal everyday food,” he adds, giving the example of the “black grape seeds” which have anti-aging and anti-can­cer properties. The apple cider vin­egar produced at Sara is also com­pletely organic, with no catalysts, Pandey informs, and yet sell for half the price of other imported apple cider vinegar products.

Having satisfied local consumers with its products, Sara Foods has been planning to sell abroad. “We have had trade inquires and even orders from other countries,” Pan­dey says. “But as our government cannot give us proper documenta­tion to export, our export plans have been shelved”.