The progress for growing avocados in India took a bit of a pause over the last two years, mostly due to the challenges of the pandemic. However, one grower is back at it and has received new plants from Israel. It’s his hope he’ll be able to sell some of the plants of the next consignments to other growers in India, to test growing avocado in different regions.
According to Harshit Godha, founder of IndoIsraelAvocado, he’s run into quite some problems ever since he ventured into growing avocados in India: “Since we started our avocado project in 2019, I’ve encountered lots of issues. For one, I couldn’t import the consignment of 2019 as I could not obtain the import permit in time, so the avocado plants got too big and my shipment got cancelled for that year. The next shipment was supposed to arrive in the summer of 2020, but of course Covid happened. Both India and Israel went into their first lockdown. The situation meant it was impossible to import the avocado plants during that time.”
Godha states that after all the challenges he’s had to endure, he’s finally been able to import new plants from Israel, which are now in quarantine. “Finally in 2021, when my consignment was about to get shipped in May, there was political unrest in Israel. As soon as the situation became normal and Ben Gurion airport began functioning again, I was able to import my plants. My new plants arrived in July of this year. At the moment, these plants are growing inside my greenhouse and are under quarantine. I will keep the plants inside the quarantine facility and grow them so that they are ready for transplanting next year.”
Looking at the weather, Godha explains there were no real surprises, which means that the plants could survive outside, despite him keeping the plants in the greenhouse for now: “It was monsoon season in Bhopal, India, over the last few months. Climate conditions have been kinder on us. No extreme changes and the plants were inside the greenhouse, so were sheltered anyway. But this bodes a promising future for the avocado plants.”
For the future, Godha hopes to expand the growing of avocado growing in India by selling some of his imported plants to other Indian growers: “I am thinking of importing another consignment from Israel, but this time, the consignment would be for sale, so that we can try avocado farming in different regions of India and understand what works in different locations. Farmers who buy plants from me would be able to test and try on their own lands and wouldn’t have to go through the painful and time-consuming import procedure.” He concludes.
For more information:
Harshit Godha
IndoIsraelAvocado
Email: [email protected]
www.indoisraelavocado.com