A family-owned 麻豆精选 fruit beverage company is ready to expand, despite the challenges they faced in 2020.
Farming Karma started as a family-owned fruit farm, mainly growing apples. But the family鈥檚 younger generation Avi and Sumeet Gill, with Avi鈥檚 wife Binny Boparai, decided to grow their parents鈥� business by turning their fruits into drinks.
It has now been a full two years since Farming Karma鈥檚 first apple soda first launched and despite a global pandemic, they were able to launch four other flavours 鈥� peach, berry, cherry, and pear 鈥� and now, they are ready to do more.
鈥淚 think we are ready now. There鈥檚 still so much to learn and just to journey we鈥檝e been on for the last two years has been amazing,鈥� Avi said.
鈥淏ut we鈥檙e more ready than ever, more ready than we were two years ago.鈥�
Ready to bounce back with more offerings, that is. The Gill family will soon be adding something new to their line of products: Farming Karma Spiked.
The new line will be available in apple, peach, berry, cherry and pear, with vodka. The new line isn鈥檛 ready yet, as the team is still working on the right taste, but they said it鈥檚 just about ready for everyone else to enjoy.
鈥淲e鈥檝e made our first batch of vodka apple soda and we鈥檙e working on some of the other flavours. We鈥檙e just getting through some of the logistics,鈥� he said.
鈥淲e haven鈥檛 put it on our shelves yet, but I would say we鈥檙e about seven days from doing that.鈥�
Binny said they never thought they鈥檇 venture into alcoholic beverages when they started with fruit sodas but as with everything, they pivoted when the pandemic hit the Okanagan, thinking outside the box to survive.
鈥淲hen the pandemic hit in March, just like every other small business, our sales tanked鈥� but with no customers, we had so much downtime, so we started working on different flavours and that鈥檚 how we first launched peach and cherry,鈥� Binny said.
鈥淭here was some silver lining. (The pandemic) made us think outside the box and do some things we might have never considered.鈥�
Avi and Binny said being innovative with the products they offer is only one part of the story: they have been able to thrive during difficult times because the community continued to support them.
鈥淲e can鈥檛 thank our community enough for all the support they鈥檝e given us,鈥� Binny said.
鈥淓specially here at our location, when nobody knew what Farming Karma was, the residents from around here stopped by and supported us and it鈥檚 word of mouth that travelled and got the ball rolling for us. So thank you to all of you who have supported us.鈥�
READ MORE: 麻豆精选 runner goes for gold at the Olympics, 17 years after her first try
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