A new US$50 million joint venture has been launched to transform the Indian farming sector.

FieldFresh Foods has been founded by the Rothschild family and the New Delhi-based Bharti conglomerate, and aims to provide high quality fresh fruit and vegetables to the European market.

The organisation intends to take advantage of the high volume farm production available in several north Indian states.

Lady Lynn de Rothschild, co-chairman of the new company, told the FT: “We can take the produce to the European consumer at a price that is competitive. If we do this right, agriculture will do to India what the business process outsourcing business did. That is the scope of our vision.”

The creators of the scheme hope to turn India, already one of the world’s largest fruit and vegetable producers, into the ‘bread basket of the world’.

FieldFresh Foods will be carrying out research into hybrid seeds and creating a model farm in Punjab to introduce new cutting edge farming techniques. It will also strike contracts with farmers and expects to be exporting produce within the next 18 months.

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