Summary
Fruit Punch
An apple a day keeps growth their way, believes corporate India.See the full content of this document
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Current News
Anand Adhikari
It's an industry that thrives on cheap labour, and a tropical climate, and every developed market, including the US and Europe, wants a big piece of it. This unlikely domestic theme of high global interest is fruits, and some of corporate India's biggest names have been quick to seize the opportunity. The Mittals of Bharti, the Mahindras, ITC, Godrej and the Adanis, some of the reputed business groups that are producing and selling fruit, in the local market as well as overseas.They have some very good reasons to do so. India produces an estimated 50 million tonnes of fruit annually (10 per cent of the world's fruit production), valued at over Rs 10,000 crore. It ranks second to Brazil in the world in production. In certain products like mangoes, sapota, banana, pomegranates and acid lime, India is the largest producer. There's more. India produces about 54.2 per cent of the world's mangoes and 11 per cent of its bananas. About 50,000 tonnes of pomegranates are produced every year, of which only 1 per cent is exported. In grapes, the country has recorded the highest productivity per unit area in the world. And virtually any fruit can be found in the Indian basket: Apricots, pears, peaches, citrus, guavas, melons, pineapples, plus the exotic variety like starburst, avocados, artichoke and olives.Yet, the country has not been able to capitalise on this advantage, so far. That's because "almost the entire production, logistics and trade of fruits and vegetables is dominated by the unorganised sector, leading to large inefficiencies and wastages," says S. Sivakumar, Head (Agro) at ITC. "Post-harvest losses continue to be high," adds Vikram Puri, CEO, Mahindra Shubh Labh Services, an agri-venture of the Mahindras that focuses on grapes.But as Sivakumar of ITC explains, the potential for companies entering this sector arises precisely from these weak spots in the Indian fruit story. And for many groups, the synergies do exist. Points out R.S. Vijan, Executive Vice President, Godrej Agrovet: "It's a logical extension for us to complete the loop since we have been working with farmers for many years."Bharti company FieldFresh has a vision to 'Link Indian Fields to the World'. The company has started exporting mangoes, grapes, pomegranates and litchis. "More products will be added in due course of time," says a FieldFresh spokesperson. Tobacco major ITC has decided to deal with a complete basket of fruits of common consumption. "Some fruits like apple, mango and banana automatically get included in any basket of common consumption," says Sivakumar. Ravindra Jain, President at Adani Agrifresh, which started selling apples in the domestic market, says: "We are studying high-volume and high-value fruits like mangoes, g...See the full content of this document
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