Becky Balderstone is the founder of Ripe, which has just launched a weekly food market on Saturdays at Dubai Garden Centre that features stalls selling oils, chutneys, jams, dips and breads. Her own stall will sell fresh fruit and vegetables grown on local farms. She speaks about why she started the business and how she plans to expand it.
What gave you the idea for the business?
My husband works for Desert Group, and … he saw how beautiful the produce is here. We loved our home delivery service in the UK and Australia, so he said all you need is to work with some of the farms and you can deliver this produce to people in the UAE.
Where are the vegetables grown?
I work with a number of farms, mainly in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain and there is one farm in Liwa. I'm looking to start working with a farmer in Ras Al Khaimah. I like to work with farms that use organic methods.
How do you make sure the farms are organic?
There's a local certification in the UAE, and also just by going to the farms and seeing the process they use and what kind of fertiliser they use as well. There are a couple of farms with international certification and a number of farms I'm working with are working towards an international certification, but are still using organic methods right now.
Why organic?
It's not organic I'm focusing on. It's more local because once you fly everything in it has been frozen; it has been held in warehouses and kept in containers, and by the time you get that produce it's been on quite a long journey. When I started to visit farms, the ones using more of the organic practices had a higher quality of vegetables.
What kind of challenges did you encounter when you were setting up?
I'm in the very early stages. We've only been operating for a few months and with any start-up company there's always going to be challenges. I have a free zone licence, so that part has been fairly straightforward. I financed the start-up purely by savings (but) in the next month or so I should have a local partner as well. It will probably be easier for me by having that local presence and it will also help me to do deliveries and the next stage of my business, so I'm really excited about it.
What are your plans for the business?
I will be launching a market in Abu Dhabi on November 18. The second phase is to offer collection points for customers. In the next few weeks my online site will be live, so you can go online and order your box and then have it delivered to one of your neighbourhood collection points. As soon as I have finance to do more on the logistics side, I will start neighbourhood by neighbourhood doing home deliveries.
* Gillian Duncan