DIRECTOR & CEO
Nature Pearls Private Limited
naturepearlsorganic.com
CEO
Nature Bio Foods Ltd.
(Group LT foods Ltd)
Director (Supply Chain and Supplier Quality Assurance)
Tasty Bites Pvt Ltd.
AIOI is a membership organization to serve its member with a mission to promote the genuineness of organic products and to work actively in organic advocacy with the policy makers. The AIOI board of directors consists of 10 members. Each member serves a turn of 2 year. Board members are elected by AIOI industry general membership member. Presently there are 6 board of directors from the industry , executive director, CEO and other staff members.
Association of Indian Organic Industry (AIOI)
DPC Building, Plot No-53
Sector-13,Dwarka
New Delhi 110075 India
Telephone No (D): +91-11-43609167
E-Mail: [email protected]
Ajay Katyal A veteran in the Indian Organic Industry and a well know name in the global organic farming movement. He posseses a 30 years of experience in establishing multiple organic food and farming projects. He established a very large Organic food business in a reputed Rice Company as early as in year 2000. Specialised in international business development of speciality rice & many agri- products , Mr katyal founded his own Organic Food Venture namely Nature Pearls Pvt Ltd, located in Delhi NCR. For sourcing truly certified organic products, Nature Pearls is having 12 Organic farming projects under contract farming with about 12000 farmering families covering 18000 hectares in seven Indian states. Nature Pearls export about 10-12 kinds of organic Rice, grains, spices & processed products in to most of the developed countries wolrdwide.
Rajashekar Reddy Seelam is the founder and Managing Director of Sresta Natural Bioproducts Pvt Ltd, the leader in Organic food business in India.
Working closely with farmers, he saw first-hand the havoc chemicals wreaked on soil, food chain. This seeded the idea of creating a business which is based on sustainability of livelihoods, lifestyles and environment. Thus Sresta was born in 2004. Sresta currently does contract farming with 45000 farmers on 225000 acres across 15 states in India. Sresta produces and markets over 200 organic food products under the “24 Mantra” Brand in India, Europe, North America, Middle east, Near East & Far East.
Seelam is the founder Chairman of Association of Indian Organic Industry (AIOI), was a Board Member of International Competence Centre for Organic Agriculture, Member of various Industry Association & Governement Committees.
Mr. Sameer Mehra, the founder of Suminter India Organics Pvt Ltd, a leading Exporter of Certified Organic products from India. A Young entrepreneur, with a masters degree in finance and marketing from Emory University, USA Sameer Mehra has been awarded with the prestigious 40 under 40 Entrepreneurs award by the Economic Times of India in addition to several more. Suminter has been awarded as the largest Indian Exporter of Organic Spices for 4 years in a row by spices board of India, and continues to be the largest exporter of Organic Spices from India. Suminter in its 15 years of existence has been exporting to 12 countries and supplies its high quality products to leading Fortune 500 companies globally. For sourcing genuine high quality certified organic products , the company works closely with over 50,000 farmers under contract farming across all the agricultural states of India to grow, harvest and process organic goods (food and fibre). The company has several processing facilities across India and overseas which have state of the art equipment and the facilities are certified under BRC and other Global Food Safety standards.
Brig. Oberoi served with distinction in the Indian Army for four decades before taking premature release in 1999 to pursue a second career in the corporate sector. He has since worked with the Tata group, ITC and Walmart India.
Oberoi is currently CEO of Nature Bio Foods ( NBF ) , a leading Organic Foods company in India. NBF’s strengths lie in its strong farmer relationships built over past 25 years. Its products are exported to Europe and North America. He continues as an Associate Director with a leading branded rice company in Gurgaon – LT Foods. Here he leads the Sustainability initiatives for the company as well as developing and incubating new businesses.
Over the past two decades he has built up expertise in Indian agriculture. Both at the micro level -handholding farmers in field & horticulture crops across different agro climatic zones, and, at corporate levels in operationalising agriculture related businesses. He is passionate about farmers and farming and firmly believes this is the only way to reduce poverty especially in developing countries
Oberoi is extensively travelled and makes it a point to visit and learn as much of farming as he can wherever he is. He is a frequent speaker at agribusiness related seminars and workshops.
He brings maturity, wisdom, and, gifted with a curious mind, a sense of fun to his work.
His interests encompass wide reading, some writing, music, gardening and physical fitness.
He and his wife Uma live in Gurgaon, India.
Balram Singh is Chief Operating Officer at ORGANIC INDIA PRIVATE LIMTED and one of the founding members of AIOI. Realizing the need to save mother nature, environment, and the society from ill effect of uncontrolled chemical usage, he made a humble beginning towards achieving this goal by joining ORGANIC INDIA, 20 year back. He has been working since then with small and marginalized farmers in rural India to promote organic farming and help them generate better income.
ORGANIC INDAI PRIVATE LIMTED is one of the pioneers in starting organic agriculture movement In India and work with thousands of small family farmers in India to cultivate tens of thousands of acres of sustainable organic farmland. ORGANIC INDIA manufactures organic products which promotes health and true wellness under its brand name and distributes them in India and world over since last over two decades.
Mr. Gopinath Rangaswamy Durairaj, Executive Director, Mother India Farms, Bangalore, a leading producer and exporter of Organic Tropical Ingredients.
Mr. Durairaj holds a degree in Energy Management from New York Institute of Technology and has worked in the Sustainable Energy Industry before joining Mother India Farms.
He has over a decade of experience in the Organic Food Industry. He has continually built strategies to expand the footprint Mother India Farms in the International markets and represents the company at various international platforms. He has placed the company on a high growth track and has enabled the organization to cater to the increasing demand for organic products.
Ankit Singhal , Director (Supply Chain and Supplier Quality Assurance).Tasty Bites Pvt Ltd ,Pune.
He is B. Tech in agricultural engineering from G.B Pant University of Agriculture & Technology and MBA from the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA).
Mr Ankit is a Certified CII SCM Pro and has expertise in identifying and managing risks in the commodity value and supply chain.
A professional with over 22 years of experience spanning Corporate, Academic and Regulatory sectors . She is a PhD in Life Sciences & Post Doctorate in Tissue culture. As an expert in Organic Farming and former advisor to the National Accreditation Body, APEDA under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry ,Government of India , made several contributions towards the overall development of the National Programme for Organic Production (NPOP) implemented by Agricultural & Processed Food Export Development Authority (APEDA) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India for development of exports. Represented APEDA as an Expert in several National Committees of Ministry of Agriculture, Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), Food Safety and Standard Authority of India (FSSAI), Ministry of Environment and Forests (2009-10), Ministry of Textiles, Government of India (2009-10) and Planning Commission.
Dr Gouri has been an active member of Global Market Access Project (GOMA) of FAO/ UNCTAD/ IFOAM (2009-2013) ,International Accreditation Forum (IAF) and Roundtable for Organic Agriculture and Climate Change (2013) ,The International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture (IFOAM/UNCTAD/FAO) (2003-2008) and Working group member of The Criteria Committee of The International Federation for Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM), Germany (2001-2002)
Presently she is a Partner Member of the Organic Food System Programme (OFSP)—an international initiative in 2015 for research and knowledge transfer on organic food issues. OFSP is closely linked to IFOAM Organic International and the UN Programme on Sustainable Food Systems, Member of Working Group on Eco Agriculture and Bio products of Indian Council of Food and Agriculture(ICFA) , an apex think tank organization, serving as a global platform for partnerships towards addressing policy issues concerning farmers, food and agro industries, Member of the Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum),an initiative of FAO and also Assessor with National Body for Accreditation of Certification Bodies (NABCB) , Quality Council of India (QCI).
