Harshit Godha started his dream of avocado farming in India more than three years ago. He’s come a very long way since then, and states that demand for avocados in general provides local producers with a big opportunity in the coming years: “Avocado farming in India is picking up pace. The end consumer is increasingly becoming aware of the fruit. It’s one of the fastest growing categories in the fresh produce market. India has recently allowed import avocados from Tanzania. Earlier, the Hass avocados which were being imported from New Zealand or Mexico were quite expensive. Tanzania, due to its proximity to the west coast of India allows for cheaper transport. This might give the impression that if avocados are being imported from Tanzania, then the locally grown produce would face heavy competition. However, that is not true, because when Tanzania has their season it is the off-season in India and vice versa.”
Combining local production with imports during the off-season should lead to avocado being available year-round, Godha explains. “We are looking at a year-round supply of avocados in India in the future. This can be directly compared to the avocado industry in California. Just because the USA allows import of avocados from Mexico, doesn’t mean that avocado producers of California can’t accrue profits. Another example would be that India allows import of apples from Turkey, Iran and other countries. Despite that, the local apple industry of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir are not only surviving, but thriving.”
Although the process has developed well, Godha still has to deal with expensive imports of grafted plants, rather than being able to import avocado rootstocks seeds: “A major challenge still remains that the Indian government doesn’t allow the import of avocado rootstocks seeds from abroad. In India, we don’t have a single avocado rootstock. Therefore, importing the entire grafted plant from abroad is quite expensive and ultimately the farmers have to bear that cost.”
So far everything has been going relatively smooth, although Covid may have slowed down the overall development of avocado farming in India. Godha has been selling avocado plants to other interested farmers in India, which went very well, he says. “So far, I have imported two consignments of avocado plants. The first one was for my own orchards and the second one was for sales purposes. I will be transplanting my first consignment in my own orchards in March 2023, as those plants are free from quarantine now. The second shipment had roughly 4000 plants and all were sold out, I will start delivering them next year once their quarantine period is over. My sales are from all over India. We’ve seen a strong demand from North East India and the coffee estates of South India. These locations have ideal conditions for sustainable avocado farming. Height, rainfall, climate, soil and human resource, it’s all there. Furthermore, I have taken bookings for the third consignment, which is due to arrive in March 2023. It will be for roughly 2000 avocado plants.”
As more farmers are trying out farming avocados in India, Godha feels he’ll have a solid sample size to find out what varieties do well in certain regions in India. “Once we have commercial orchards that start bearing fruits, I think the demand for plants will explode. More farmers will go for avocado cultivation once they see the results. Since I am doing trials all over India, we‘ll have a lot of data on what works and what doesn’t within the next two years. This would allow me to make better decisions regarding variety and rootstock selection for each location.”
“Most of the demand right now is coming from big cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and Goa, but if the fruit price can be brought down by producing locally, then the total accessible market becomes huge. Moreover, the educated and well off customers are shifting towards more responsibly grown produce, so locally grown produce will serve them well as it will have a lesser carbon footprint compared to the imported counter parts,” Godha concludes.
For more information:
Harshit Godha
IndoIsraelAvocado
Tel: +91 6268643227
[email protected]
www.indoisraelavocado.com