India: Pomegranate demand from Middle East significantly increased

Recent rains in the southern part of India were largely restricted to the area around Chennai and have been devastating to the population in the city and surrounding area, the damage to crops has been limited to bananas and other local crops. The pomegranate growing areas have not seen any excessive rain and are in full production as the main growing areas are in Maharashtra in the west of the country.

The pomegranate season is hotting up and INI Farms, who specialise in ready-to-eat arils, as well as bulk pomegranates and bananas are currently packing for both the European and Middle Eastern markets, expect the first pomegranates will arrive in Europe in time for New Year.

"Middle East is a fairly established market for us," explains Kalpesh Khivasara. "Demand from this market has increased significantly in recent years, we will be sending 50% more to this market this season."

The demand for pomegranate arils is growing both in Europe and the Middle East according to Kalpesh.

Last year INI Farms introduced a new pack for the ready-to-eat pomegranate arils, which have already been shipped to Europe and the Middle East, as well as South East Asian destinations. These new packs are 60g to 100g, what makes these packs special is that they are so ready-to-eat that they even include a spoon.

INI Farms sells pomegranates bananas and arils under the Kimaye brand.

INI Farms grows pomegranates on 320 ha of land, a lot of this is new plantings which have been done over the last few years, some of the orchards have not yet reached full maturity so volumes are set to continue increasing for a year or two. Demand for Indian pomegranates is big just now as they are the only country producing from December onwards.

For more information:

Kalpesh Khivasara
InI Farms Private Limited
Tel: +91 22 42600700
Email: kalpesh.khivasara@inifarms.com
www.inifarms.com