Fruit industry blooming as Indian platter gets exotic with Sharoni, Kiwis

PUNE: Sharoni from Spain, horned melon and avocados from New Zealand - the average Indian diet is turning exotic with more and more rare fruits getting included on the traditional platter.

With quite a few takers even for high-quality avacado which cost Rs 400/piece, the exotic fruit industry is growing at a healthy 15 per cent to 20 per cent a year.

Even consumers from small places like Raipur are including them in their diet making importers to make large investments in infrastructure as they see steady growth in the years to come.

Kiwis have become most popular in recent years, especially due to the belief that it helps dengue patients recover fatsre. Tarun Arora, director, IG International, said, " Kiwi fruit is growing massively at about 30 per cent per annum."

Arora expects imports of kiwis to grow from about 500 tonnes to 1,000 tonnes per week to 5,000 tonnes a week in another decade. Arora has plans to invest to expand his cold storage capacity.

As kiwi imported from New Zealand is not affordable by all, importers have turned towards Iran. The kiwi imported from Iran is priced at Rs 100/kg (wholesale rate) as compared to the Rs 200-250/kg which the best quality kiwi cost.

"Iran kiwi is cheaper by more than 50 per cent compared to other destinations. The transit time and cost is also less, which made the fruit affordable for commoners," said Dinesh Shinde, director, Anusuya Fresh, one of the biggest distributors of avocados in India.

Apart from kiwis, dragon fruits, avocados etc which have become fairly known, importers are also trying to get newer fruits to the country. One such company is IG International which mainly focuses on cold storage and transport.