23-year-old builds 'ugly' fruit and veg online empire

Kamran Kasaei-Nejad started produce delivery business Funky Food in April, selling 'ugly' but still fresh produce rejected by supermarkets in order to fight food waste and help Queensland farmers recoup some of their costs.

Sourcing it directly from the markets and farmers, he's able to save produce from being dumped while putting some money back into growers' pockets.

The business model also allows him to pass on major savings to his Brisbane area customers.

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Starting out packing orders in his mum's garage, the entrepreneur is now operating from a 1000sq m warehouse in Rocklea and employs 16 staff.

"In the early stages it was crazy. It went from mum's garage, to orders increasing quickly," Mr Kasaei-Nejad said.

"It's still great and working really well now, but it's not that intense, disruptive growth that we faced initially."

Selling blemished produce is not new, with Woolworths launching 'The Odd Bunch' in 2014 and Coles following in 2019 with the 'I'm Perfect' range, but not many make an entire business out of it.

And for someone with a background in digital marketing and zero horticulture experience, entering the fruit and veg trade may not seem like a logical thing to do.

But for Mr Kasaei-Nejad, who grew up in the Iranian city of Shiraz before moving to Australia, it made perfect sense.

"My mum is extremely waste conscious. In that sort of environment, you don't waste anything because everything is so scarce," he said.

"I probably ignored it for most of my life, but I'd see the hidden messages there."

It wasn't until he was living in Australia and talking with a farmer about how much food is wasted for 'ridiculous' reasons that things clicked.

"Hearing all this stuff, I started looking into it. I saw the competition here, I saw the people that had done it better in the US, and I thought, 'It's something I've got to try - at least see if we can put a dent in it'.

"A lot of times there's an oversupply and there's not that much demand for it. It just gets thrown out. There's got to be a place for these things. People want them."

Funky Food has made it its mission to help fix the problem.

"What we're really trying to do here is make an actual impact," Mr Kasaei-Nejad said.

"When we wake up in the morning and we go, 'Okay, what's the purpose? What are we working so hard for?' It can't be just money because that gets demotivating very quickly. There's a lot of other ways you can make more money with less effort."

As part of this vision, it's also started working with charities, donating produce which can't be delivered next-day to Foodback and OzHavest.

Currently, the company sells two 'mystery' boxes filled with a range of in-season fruit and vegetables to simplify logistics.

One of the farmers they work with, Kalfresh, picks their beans on day one, Funky gets them the next day and they're delivered the day after.

For the leading Queensland vegetable producer, which has farms in the Scenic Rim, Lockyer Valley, Darling Downs, Stanthorpe and in Liston, Funky Food has given it an outlet to sell produce which doesn't meet the shape, size or appearance standards other customers have.

"It also means that we're able to recover the cost of the produce to the farm, particularly in a year where the weather has been very difficult and has led to issues with the way produce looks, or has grown," Kalfresh sales manager Martin Beattie said.

Over winter, Kalfresh experienced higher-than-expected rainfalls in south east Queensland and Funky Food provided a sales avenue for produce that may otherwise have gone to waste.

"No farmer wants to see the result of their hard work be thrown away so it's important to us that we find viable outlets for the entire crop, not just the best looking produce," Mr Beattie said.

In Bowen this winter, Kalfresh had colder-than-expected weather which meant it had a lot of very small butternut pumpkins.

"Funky Food has been able to sell these pumpkins, which has had a positive impact on returns to farm," Mr Beattie said.

The company has also worked with Funky Food to develop a new line for beans which are great eating quality but are curly, misshapen or broken.

It's done the same for organic and conventional corn out of Bowen, where the cob is either too short, missing some kernels and doesn't look perfect.

In just seven months, Mr Kasaei-Nejad has learnt a great deal about the industry and feels he has found the right place to focus his energy.

"I feel like it's one of those things where you fall in love with it over time. I'm being pulled more and more into it," he said.

"We're all just standing on the shoulders of the previous generations that have brought it forward, and we're just taking it the next level forward."