Mrs. Chayaa Nanjappa is an award-winning, first-generation rural woman entrepreneur with her experience spanning all nuances of transforming food production from farm to fork. She is the Founder & Managing Partner of the Brand ‘Nectar Fresh’. The unit is a Khadi & Village Board-backed rural social enterprise that has been empowering the rural & tribal folk as well as small farmers. Chayaa’s wide spectrum of understanding agriculture, food processing, adherence to quality, and marketing has resulted in a successful amalgamation of farmer producers, food industry, and consumers.  A key stakeholder in the system is also a pocket of the tribal population engaging in the honey collection. Her commitment to learning micro details in the supply chain and allied sciences has helped power the business she established from a small start-up to an internationally reputed unit presently. Nectar Fresh is currently one of the major buyers of honey sourced from tribal communities across the country. Her contributions to the food industry acknowledge with deep respect, the interdependence within all areas of food production.

Backed by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission of India that promotes Cottage Industries, Nectar Fresh has gained a reputation ubiquitously for its high-quality products in India’s premium market. The tag for being the most trusted and preferred brand remains intact with its partners, be it the high-end luxury hotels like The Marriott, ITC, Hyatt, Radisson or the Multinational Retail Stores like the Walmart, Spar Hypermarkets or the Quality & Health-conscious Ayurveda and Pharmaceutical giants. The brand has evolved over the years and currently offers a diversified product portfolio. A range of innovative agro-based food products such as locally grown Chia and flax seeds, natural coffee, natural jams, sauces, high-quality apple cider & mother vinegar, naturally grown spices, dry fruits, peanut butter, and nutritious spirulina jaggery chikki has been successfully launched over time.

Nectar Fresh celebrates the synergy between nature, farmers/rural folk, and the food industry to offer high nutrition quality processed food products in the market. Committed to promote sustainability and economically enrich the livelihoods of small farmers & rural folk, Nectar Fresh has been working closely with groups across India, to improve its position in the emerging value chain. An entire team comprising of rural folk from the unskilled and uneducated segment were hired and trained meticulously to work with Nectar Fresh. Today, they continue to remain an integral part of the Nectar Fresh family.

Chayaa Nanjappa strongly believes that a quality management system is critical to her line of business. All products of Nectar Fresh are ones with a gourmet reputation and are currently meeting the best of International Standards.

Nectar Fresh is also the first brand in India to be using the ‘Women-Owned’ logo of ‘WEConnect International’ and takes forward the ‘Make in India’ mission ahead.

 Ever since the inception of Nectar Fresh as a company in the year 2007, Chayaa Nanjappa has been the recipient of Honors and Recognition from numerous organizations and has notched up awards successively. Chayaa is passionate and determined to empower, educate and support women in business. Most recently, she was elected to serve on the board of ABWCI (Association of Business-Women in Commerce & Industry) as the Country President, India, and State President, Karnataka.  

Chayaa Nanjappa has made significant strides as a Woman Entrepreneur in the Food Processing Industry. She has been at the forefront of agro-based food processing in the MSME sector and has been conferred with several prestigious awards including the ‘Best Entrepreneur Award’ in the field of ‘Food Processing’ from the Confederation Of Women Entrepreneurs Of India (C O W E) 2013-14. She has won the prestigious ‘CNBC Women Entrepreneur Award’ for the year 2014-15 and The ‘VIT Amazing Entrepreneur Award – The Weekend Leader’ for the year 2014 – 2015.  She has also won the ‘Priyadarshini Award for Outstanding Woman Entrepreneur’ 2015-16 and went on to win the ‘Saarthak Naari Award‘- 2016  which was in recognition of her immense contribution in the rural sector.

With an incredibly supportive husband (also a business partner) by her side, Chayaa Nanjappa Rajappa has broken barriers successfully by launching her products in the International Market. Her bold move to compete with and defeat the monopoly of foreign brands in India’s high-end market has won her acclaim and she has many more accolades to her name. She has had the privilege of being honored with the award ‘Laghu Udyog Bharati Woman Entrepreneur of the year’ – MSME sector, which was presented to her by Smt. Nirmala Seetharaman, Minister of State for the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, 2016-17.  

 A few other notable awards that she has earned include, being felicitated as the ‘Winner of FKCCI Award’ (Federation of Karnataka Chambers of Commerce & Industry) 2014-15,                      The ‘Entrepreneurship Award’ by the Karnataka Small Scale Industries Association (KASSIA) 2014-15, the ‘Industrialist of the Year Award’ by Mysore Chamber of Commerce and SAP 2017-18 and the ‘Industrialist Award-2018’ by Rotary Mysore Midtown Best.

Chayaa Nanjappa has also represented the country at various international and national level platforms. She was chosen as a Speaker for the prestigious ‘Hindu Economic Forum at HAGUE, Holland’ July 2020, along with other prominent speakers. She was also one amongst a few chosen women from Asia, selected for special training on ‘Scaling up of Exports to quality conscious international market-2019’ which was organized by the Australian Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade. Chayaa Nanjappa has had the privilege of chairing the session; ‘Inspiring Women’ at ‘The World Hindu Congress’ held in Chicago–2018. She was also a part of the NSIC- Indian Delegation to Cardiff -United Kingdom.

On numerous occasions, Chayaa Nanjappa was chosen by APO- Japan as a ‘Resource Person’ for workshops across the globe. She was also a Resource Person for the South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF), Srilanka, and the Regional Economic Cooperation Conference of Afghanistan (RECCA). She has had the honor to be a Speaker with the Indian Science Congress on ‘Implementing Technology acquired by R&D Labs’.

 In 2020, she was hosted by Amity University as the main speaker at the session on ‘Innovations, Entrepreneurship and Emerging Technologies In the food Sector’. India’s Premium Organization & Centre for Food Research, C.F.T.R.I Mysore invited her as a Guest Speaker on the occasion of a CEO Meet. She was also invited to speak as the ‘Guest of Honour’ at the IIHR (Indian Institute of Horticulture Research), Bengaluru.

Thanks to the highest quality adherence of Nectar Fresh Products backed with innovative packaging. Nectar Fresh has always been prioritized by Government organizations for important and exclusive trade phases across the globe. The Company’s variant, ‘Nectar Fresh 100% Natural Jams’ was launched by Mr. Krish Iyer, Ex-President, and CEO of Walmart India, at the WEConnect International platform. It was launched with the sole intention to support rural farmers. Nectar Fresh was also a part of India’s most prestigious event, ‘Surajkundh Mela’ by the Karnataka Tourism Department (KSTDC) and was also provided a themed stall.  The company also had the privilege to be a part of the PATA event (Pacific Asia Travel Association) and was provided with a retail space for being on the top ten noted product list of Karnataka.

Chaya Nanjappa is now looking at surging forward by elevating her business to the next level. With a philanthropic vision for the future and in line with the company’s core value statements, she emphasizes the need to empower and do more for the tribal community. With an aim to revive the indigenous art forms which are on the verge of extinction and to support tribal artisans across the country, she’s all set to open India’s largest rural and tribal artisans retail store, ‘Naman’ a sister concern of her new venture VeeraVartam Pvt Ltd.  The initiative strives at promoting the cultural heritage of India and provides for a platform to showcase the unique art forms of the rural and tribal communities. The new venture is in the course of collaborating with tribal artisans and producers across the country and the retail store, ‘Naman’ will be unveiled shortly.

She is the prestigious member of the executive committee of the Indian Institute of Food Processing Technology which has been declared as an Institution of National importance.

She is also a member of the National Bee Board.

She is been nominated as a member of the National Level Advisory Committee for Honey Mission of Khadi and Village Industries Commission.