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Leading exotic fruits importer IG International, on Thursday, said it has ventured into exporting Indian fruits to Europe, Russia, the Middle East and South Asian countries.
For this, the Navi Mumbai-based company has set up an export division to market fresh produce overseas, Varun Arora, Director, told BusinessLine .
To start with, IG International is sourcing diverse variety of grapes, under the name of igGrapes, from networks laid across Nashik, Satana, Malegaon, Baramati and Sangli districts of Maharashtra. It has also set up warehousing and cold storage facilities, rented at Nashik and Jalgaon.
“We procure grapes and onions from Nashik, bananas from Jalgaon and Akola. From next year, we are exploring contract farming.” The company goes to the farmers directly for spot-buying.
Having imported fresh fruits from all over the world for over 50 years now, IG International Pvt. Ltd. has been actively involved in exports by investing in third parties doing sizeable exports from India. This is for the first time that it is directly stepping into this space.
IG international’s grapes’ exports division has integrated with the grape-producing regions of Maharashtra to ensure supplies from farmers throughout the season, thus optimizing revenue from exports. Currently, varieties of black seedless, green seedless and red seedless are being exported by igGrapes division since January this year.
He said IG International is experimenting with and incorporating the latest technology to increase shelf-life of the fruit to endure longer transit time and make more varieties of grapes viable for exports.
IG International also plans to further diversify its product assortment to bananas and pomegranates, and also onions and potatoes. The company is expecting to export around 5,000 tonnes in these categories in 2017.
The company currently imports over 30 varieties of fruits into India from 22 countries.
IG International’s total revenues in 2016-17 were Rs 500 crore. In the first year of exports, it is expecting Rs 20 crore worth of revenue from overseas.
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