It has already been six years since Indian grapes had MRLs that were too high. The batch concerned was small, but since then companies from this country feel as if they still sometimes have to prove themselves. “Cultivating grapes is a passion for us and we continue to invest in ensuring we always deliver the best quality,” says Ravikiran Dange from the company Monsoon Foods. “The season will start again at the beginning of 2017, and we are ready.”
Almost ten years of export
Monsoon Foods from Nashik, India, was at the Amsterdam Produce Show at the beginning of November. The company has been exporting for almost ten years already, and they especially trade and produce grapes. They have one part own-production, and additionally they have about 250 cultivators who are supplying them for exports. These have partly been Fairtrade certified. They are currently busy with the preparations for the new season. “We offer conventional and Fairtrade grapes. Arrivals From week six with green and Black seedless grapes. The Fair-trade harvest will start slightly later than the conventional one, around week eight arrival. The fruit is harvested and transported to a Monsoon Foods packhouse for packing."
Monsoon Foods exports directly to its buyers. “Our most important customers are supermarkets in Germany, the UK and Switzerland. These supermarkets have high standards for MRL and quality, so we have strict control on quality. This is difficult to achieve in India, because of the small land holding. There is always too much complexity involved with too many growers. We invest much of our time to work with growers to achieve MRLs and the quality. ”The 250 cultivators who are connected to Monsoon Foods each has, on average, between two and ten hectares of grapes. The Fairtrade area is about 45 hectares, and around 450 hectares are for the conventional cultivation of grapes. “We see a rising line in the number of Fairtrade and conventional cultivars, and we expect this will increase further in future.”
Fairtrade Initiative
Monsoon Foods has started this initiative for sustainable agriculture.” Most of our growers have small land holdings, so fair-trade helps them with an assured market and assured prices. This will help the small growers to invest in better farming practices and have long term sustainability."
For more information:
Ravikiran Dange
Monsoon Fresh
2, Gita Vila - Gita Nagar
Dindori Road
Nashik - 422004
+91 98600 12306
[email protected]
www.monsoonfresh.com