Deepak Fertilisers and Petrochemicals Corporation (DFPCL) has leased over 167ha of contiguous land to develop commercial banana plantations in Gujarat as it moves to ramp up its own production.
While a large corporate like DFPCL is not able to actually acquire the land, the company has leased it from a local farmer who is able to provide access to such a large area via his relatives who each own more than 50 acres (20ha), according to president of DFPC’s agribusiness division Guy Goves.
“In order to be a steady-state supplier of bananas for organised retail, we need to have control over our production,” he told Asiafruit. “It not only helps us, but demonstrates to other farmers what can be done in terms of improving productivity and quality.”
While sticking to its capacity building efforts with small farmers, DFPCL is now focused on developing its own production operations, according to Goves. He tells Asiafruit the company has set a target to grow 50 per cent of its own bananas by 2018 – which would see the company farming around 2,000 acres (809ha) in different regions.
Since acquiring a controlling stake in major Indian banana producer-marketer Desai in 2011, DFPCL has been committed to its goal of turning the country into a world-class supplier of the fruit.
Already the world’s largest banana producer, with annual output touching a staggering 30m tonnes, India’s exports are negligible. While domestic consumption is huge, the market opportunity for consistent, high-quality fruit has also yet to be tapped.
DFPCL sees “intervention in the back-end”, centering on the great scope to improve the way bananas are grown and handled, as the key to unlocking this huge potential, according to Goves.
That’s easier said than done, however, particularly with such a fragmented production base of tiny farmers torn– in a fluctuating market–between contract supply arrangements and the lure of commission agents offering high prices, but often high interest rates to boot.
In this environment, enforcing a supply contract with farmers becomes almost impossible for marketers, which runs counter to consistency of supply.
Goves said that “building a quality culture” is one of the biggest challenges for its banana business. He pointed to a dearth of knowledge among farmers, and said the company is working with GTZ on a number of capacity building projects. The company has an audit team to check quality on a weekly basis, which is led by an ex-Chiquita employee Alejandro Guzman from Honduras. It has also set up a so-called “gardener concept”, where 60 acres are placed under a supervisor, who oversees six labourers each looking after 10 acres; each responsible for everything from plant care to fruit production.
“We want to change the ideology in India of everything and anything goes in to only quality goes,” said Goves.
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