Adani Group to set up produce supply chain

Adani Agrifresh, an Adani Group-promoted company, is planning to set up a supply chain for fruit and vegetables to cater to the booming organised and traditional retail sectors.

Organised retailers such as Reliance Fresh, Spencer's and Subhiksha have not been able to entirely source fruits and vegetables directly from the farmers and so they are relying on commission agents in mandis for their requirements. This gives a company like Adani Agrifresh scope to step in with a supply chain and meet the rising demand of retailers.

"We plan to become a large supply chain in fruits after which we will focus on vegetables. The idea is to set up a chain linking farms to markets in major cities and thereby providing value addition for both farmers and consumers," said Ravindra Jain, president, Adani Agrifresh. "After consolidating our supply chain operations, we would look into processing of fruits into pulp, juices etc," Jain added.

Last year, the company invested Rs 200 crore in setting up three collection and processing units with a capacity of 6,000 tonnes each in Himachal Pradesh.

The company procured about 5,000 tonnes of apples from the state last year and also bought cherry and green almond on a trial basis. It also bought litchi from Bihar.

This year, it is planning to procure 25,000 tonnes of apples and begin buying vegetables in Himachal Pradesh. In order to start operations in Maharashtra, the company will hire storage facilities around Nashik. It will buy oranges, grapes and pomegranates from Maharashtra.

This year, we are also planning to export grapes and pomegranates to European and West Asia countries. Next year, we would start buying mangoes, banana and sweet lime from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Gujarat, he added.

The company supplied apples and other fruits to retail chains like Reliance Fresh, Food Bazaar, Mother Dairy, Metro, ITC Choupal Fresh, Big Apple, etc. Apart from supplying fruits to these chains, the company is also selling directly to mandis in 25 cities across the country.