One of the biggest excuses for those who don't eat properly is the lack of time and difficult access to quality products. But with the Gaia Organics these excuses will no longer be necessary. Kauê (31) and Jana (30) from São Paulo are partners in life and in business and graduated in Advertising.
They decided to invest in a new branch: bringing organic food to people's homes. The deal — which is recent and not even a year old — is yielding good results not only in terms of business, but also as a transformation in the lives of the partners themselves. Check out the interview we did with them:
Me without Borders: What is Gaia Organics?
Organic Gaia: Gaia Orgânicos is a company with the proposal to bring organic food to the door of the house, to facilitate people's access to food that does not harm the environment and does not harm health.
Me without Borders: Since when did it appear? Is it just you or more people working on Gaia?
Organic Gaia: We made our first delivery on July 01, 2015. We started by sending a list of products by email and we learned a lot during this period. This April, we launched the online store, which we believe is a big step in the company's history. We started the two of us and today we have a delivery man working with us.
Eu sem Fronteiras: What is sold at Gaia Orgânicos and what is the biggest difficulty encountered here?
Organic Gaia: We sell both vegetables and industrialized products (breads, dairy products, sauces, juices, etc.), as long as they are all organic and certified. The biggest difficulty is to deliver the product as fresh as possible, which makes logistics very delicate. We have to be demanding with the producers and careful in the transport to guarantee that the customer opens the lid of the box and is happy to see what he received. When we select by the customer, the responsibility is greater.
Eu sem Fronteiras: In which places do you sell? On the internet, are the products sold throughout Spain?
Organic Gaia: The sale is only online or by phone and we currently deliver to a specific area within the city of São Paulo (SP) precisely to control delivery and consequently quality. As the main focus is hortifruti, all deliveries are made by car by one of our team members and we do not send anything by post.
Eu sem Fronteiras: How is your relationship with your partners and suppliers?
Organic Gaia: We make it a point to meet everyone in person whenever possible, visit the plantations and learn about the processes in order to pass on information to customers. We don't just want to sell, but also make people aware of the organic universe and its importance for the environment and health. Upon entering this universe, we realized that a very cool feature is collaboration. Everyone helps each other and there is a lot of information exchange, even between companies considered competitors.
Me without Borders: How do you feel in this job?
Organic Gaia: Work is hard, we follow non-business hours (our Sundays and late nights were never the same), but the feeling after a day of delivery is of mission accomplished and of having done something good, not only for our company, but for the collective. It is very gratifying to know that we are bringing health to people, making their lives easier., developing a part of the rural sector that is a minority and paddles very hard against the tide of agribusiness, that each basket delivered has not contaminated our water and our soil, but has contributed to the enrichment of an ecosystem... this, even on a small scale.
Eu sem Fronteiras: The commercialization and demand for organic products has increased a lot. Why did you go to this branch?
Organic Gaia: The idea came from a personal need, because when we became aware of the importance of organic products, we really wanted to encourage the cause, but it was difficult to find it close to home. Going to the market took a long time and we ended up giving in to the market produce. It was then that we thought that other people must have the same need. Adding this to the desire to work on something we really believed in, we founded Gaia.
Eu sem Fronteiras: How is your daily life?
Organic Gaia: For now, we only deliver on Tuesdays and, to guarantee the freshness of the food, we have to receive orders until Sunday, collect with the producers and assemble all the baskets on Monday to make the delivery the next day very early before the customers leave for work and the heat impairs transportation. On the other days, we focus on after-sales work, publicity, relationships, purchases of industrialized products and updating the product offer, which varies from week to week according to the harvest and the weather.
Me without Borders: Leave a message:
Organic Gaia: Oh, how difficult! What we can say is don't be afraid to change if you're not satisfied. Don't settle for less when it comes to happiness and believe that compassion is rewarded. We believe that the world will only be a better place to live when we stop thinking only about ourselves and those closest to us and start thinking about the whole. As everything is interconnected, the good ends up coming back to us.
Text written by Angélica Weise of the Eu Sem Fronteiras Team
