les from farmers that are unsuitable for supermarket sale, generally being too small, too large, or too ugly, and sells them directly to consumers. Meanwhile leftover produce is sent on to not-for-profit food rescue organisation, OzHarvest. Chief executive and co-founder Richard Tourino told Inside Retail the business has been inundated by requests from customers around the country who want to support the business and farmers. “That’s one of the reasons we wanted to raise funds through an equity crowdfunding campaign – it allows those customers to buy into the business,” Tourino said. “We want to go national as soon as we can, because there are a lot of people who are asking [us] to launch in their city, and [crowdfunding] is a way they can help make that happen faster.” There’s nothing wrong with a bit of ugly According to Tourino, 25 per cent of produce grown in Australia never leaves the farm due to physical defects.  Supermarkets have strict controls on what they will accept, which means that fruit and vegetables grown that fall outside of these guidelines often end up being wasted: meaning 25 per cent of a farmer’s time and energy is also wasted. Good & Fugly provides a secondary avenue for farmers to make a profit off of their land and effort, and can also be a means of shoring up their wallet when demand is uneven. “Oversupply can be a big problem. During lockdown, when the restaurant business was shut down, farms became desperate because they had all this produce in the ground that they had planned to sell on to restaurants, and all the demand dried up,” Tourino said. “We were able to buy that all up and send it on to our subscribers.” The business has approximately 2000 regular subscribers in Sydney, in addition to customers who purchase one-off boxes. As a new revenue stream, Good & Fugly has also recently started selling its fruit boxes directly into offices and workplaces. Moving forward, the business wants to diversify its offer into selling all produce, whether it’s ugly or not. But regardless of its product offer, Tourino wants Good & Fugly to remain a cost effective alternative to the traditional supermarket experience. However, Tourino understands that some customers are using Good & Fugly as a means to do something positive for the environment.  “One of the things I’ve learned over the last few years is that for something to have real impact, regardless of how good it is for the environment, it needs to be at least as convenient as the existing model, and at least as affordable,” Tourino said. “And that’s what we’re trying to do.”