The Hindu Business Line : Gujarat firm, Gulf co tie up for banana exports

The Gujarat-based Desai Fruits and Vegetables (DFV) has signed a multi-million dollar contract with a Gulf company for supply of bananas round-the-year and flagged off an 18-tonne container of bananas there, the company said on Tuesday.

The company Chairman, Mr Ajit Desai, said DFV had become the first Indian farming company to export bananas when the container left Jhagadiya in Bharuch district of Gujarat where hundreds of contract farmers had converged for the Third Desai Farmers’ annual meet recently.

In a statement, he said DFV sent the consignment to Sharbatly Fruit Company in Jeddah as a part of the contract. The company operates in long-term fixed price contracts, both for buyers and sellers, a first for any agriculture commodity in India.

Farmers in waitlist

Its contract farming model has over 4,000 acres of land bank and a waiting list of farmers for contract farming. To develop the global market for Indian bananas, DFV has struck strategic partnerships internationally which include investments from Switzerland and technology from the Philippines. DFV is looking at exponential growth in banana plantations.

Contract farming

The company today has more than 2,500 acres of land under contract farming of which 800 acres is under banana cultivation. In the next three years, DFV plans to ramp up the banana cultivation to 10,000 acres with over 2,500 farmers dedicated to the fruit.

DFV has created India’s first multi-fruit integrated infrastructure, adopting entire villages for producing fruits and vegetables, while partnering with suppliers internationally and exporting top-quality fruit to advanced countries including Japan, the US and the EU.

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