Fruit & vegetable company Univeg enters Indian market

Better quality, more production

Univeg’s Hein Deprez and Mahindra’s Pawan Goenka have officially signed the treaty for their joint venture on Monday, which will focus on “developing fresh fruit supply chain to provide high quality fruits that meets the needs of both the domestic and international markets”.

“We consider this association the right mix of market presence and farmer connect. Mahindra’s reach, together with our proven technical expertise across 6 continents and 32 distribution centres in Europe will be beneficial for all stakeholders”, Univeg CEO Hein Deprez said.

Univeg will have a 40 % stake in the new joint venture and will provide “technical know-how and best practices in quality control, post-harvest handling of fresh produce, ripening process”. That should mean the produce should meet the international quality standards and it should also help farmers to get their productivity and price realization up.

The Indian partner will have a 60 % stake and will “assist in arranging contract farming agreements across India while leveraging its domestic marketing and distribution network and providing the required local licensing and support services”.

Fruit brand Saboro

Mahindra Shubhlabh was founded to help Indian farmers to get their productivity up and in November 2013, it launched its own fruit brand, Saboro. With a wide range of fruits, like apples, grapes, bananas and other imported fruit, it is geared towards the health-conscientious Indian consumer.

Indian fruit will get its position in the international market over time “by building efficient export oriented supply chains, for certain selected fruits”, the press release stated. All fruits in the joint venture will be harboured under the Saboro brand.