How grapes from Nashik conquered the world

Table grape growers are far more affluent than the average Indian farmer. For instance, in a good crop year, when adverse weather or market conditions do not play spoilsport, Boraste earns anywhere between ₹25-30 lakh, after paying for cultivation costs. That’s about 16 times the annual average income of a farm household in India. “It takes hard work and a lot of care, but we owe our well-being to grapes," she said.

Grapes are a highly perishable but premium horticulture product. After an arduous journey spanning two decades, India is now counted among the top five exporters globally. You can spot Indian table grapes in global supermarkets, be it Tesco or Edeka in Europe or Choices Market in Canada, with farmers like Boraste catering to the exacting standards of fussy western buyers. The grapes supplied to Europe, for instance, have to be a certain size (berry size of 16-20 mm in diameter), be crisp and sweet (but not too sweet) besides meeting a long list of other quality parameters.

In 2023-24, India exported fresh grapes worth ₹3,461 crore, a 36% increase year-on-year, and a 3.5-fold jump over ten years. Close to half of the export volumes (45.8% in FY24) originated from just one district, Nashik, in northern Maharashtra, which has emerged as both India’s grape and wine capital. Riding on Nashik’s output, Maharashtra accounts for 67% of the country’s total production, with Karnataka (28%) and Tamil Nadu making up the rest.

Grapes are an unusual success story for more than one reason. First, they are highly perishable and would perish within ten days of harvest without a cold chain. But Indian farmers and traders have cracked the storage challenge and now export grapes to distant shores—to Europe and Canada and closer home to China and the Middle East, where the fruit travels for up to a month on the seas. This is done by precooling the harvest at zero degree Celsius and then maintaining a cold chain that extends shelf-life to 45-60 days, till it reaches the consumer.

Secondly, in a wild domestic market with few quality checks, farmers upgraded themselves to meet the exacting standards of western markets. They now produce grapes that are traceable (meaning, a consumer knows which field it comes from), closely monitor the sugar and acidity levels (which determine how the grapes taste), and follow stringent chemical residue limits set by global buyers.

Moreover, a highly competitive export market for grapes has ensured lucrative prices for growers. For instance, in the 2024 harvest season (January to April) farmers received ₹65-70 for every kg of grapes they exported, much higher than the wholesale domestic price, which averaged between ₹25-30 per kg.

Grapes are a case study for India on how to take a crop, use possible export opportunities, and lift a whole community economically, said Ramesh Ramachandran, CEO of Mahindra Agri Solutions Limited, a leading exporter shipping the fruit since 2005. “Indian farmers are now competing with countries like Peru, Chile and South Africa, producing table grapes comparable in terms of both quality and yields. Pomegranates, guava and dragon fruits are some of the other high-value crops that can emulate this journey."

The focus on growing export-quality grapes has also benefited domestic consumers. “I follow the same practices in all plots. Whatever is not picked up by exporters is sold to local traders," said Girish Raite, a grower and supplier to Mahindra Agri. This means high quality-low (chemical) residue produce for consumers in India. You may not know it, but grapes may be the safest fruit out there. Despite the risks and heavy investments required to manage vines, the export opportunity has also motivated the rural youth to venture into grape farming, Raite added.

Raising the bar

Grapes are a perennial crop and a plantation can be in production for up to 15 years. India primarily grows white (they are called white though they appear a vibrant shade of green) seedless varieties like Thompson, elongated varieties like Sonaka and black varieties like Crimson and Sharad. Because the vines require care and monitoring through the year, farmers prefer to stay close by. In the grape growing areas of Nashik, farmers live in picturesque bungalows surrounded by their fields, and not in a typical village setup with houses next to each other.

Seasoned growers often speak like agronomists, if not scientists. Earlier this December, Ganesh Kadam, 43, a farmer from Mohadi village explained to this writer why it is critical to track the parameters of atmosphere, phytosphere, and rhizosphere (he used those exact terms) to produce the best quality grapes. The sensors on Kadam’s field cost ₹65,000 apiece and the data can be monitored over a smartphone in real time.

The sensors track atmospheric parameters such as wind speed and direction, rainfall, temperature, humidity, and air pressure. At the phytosphere or plant canopy level, they track the temperature and chlorophyll index. At the root zone or rhizosphere level, moisture, electrical conductivity, and soil PH (which determines how acidic or alkaline the soil is) are monitored. This ensures optimum irrigation, nutrition management, disease prediction and spray schedules.

In 2004, Kadam took charge of two acres of a family plot and now grows table grapes on 14 acres. In 2024, he supplied 880 quintals for export at a price of ₹70 per kg, fetching ₹61.6 lakh revenue. A smaller lot, worth ₹6 lakh, was sold in the domestic market. After spending close to ₹35 lakh on production costs, his net earnings for the season were more than ₹30 lakh (average production costs are around ₹2.5 lakh per acre).

“As a visitor, one only sees the materialistic changes. How big one’s house is, how many cars a farmer owns… but it is important to understand how knowledge, technology and training drove this change," Kadam said.

 

Sahyadri Farms, a farmer-owned company in which Kadam is a shareholder, has become the largest exporter of table grapes today. Exports would not have reached where they are today without its intervention, he said. “How else can a small farmer have access to the best technology, package of practices and an assured marketing channel," he asks. “I have been to Europe, seen how farming is done there, and how the produce is sold in supermarkets. Sarkari subsidies cannot take you there."

A force of change

The Middle East is considered to be the centre of origin for grapes, where domestication from wild varieties began around 6,000 to 8,000 years ago. Persian invaders introduced grapes to northern India in 1300 AD; the crop travelled southwards with the maverick Sultan Mohammad bin Tughlaq, when he shifted his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad (present day Aurangabad in Maharashtra) in 1327 AD.

Farmers in Maharashtra have been commercially cultivating grapes for generations but began supplying to export markets only in early 2000. In 2010, most of the grapes shipped to the European Union were rejected due to the presence of excess levels of a growth regulator sold under the tradename Lihocin. Nearly half of India’s exporters shut shop after the tragic episode, which led to an estimated loss of ₹250 crore. But it taught farmers the importance of staying on top of global regulations and quality parameters. They were soon back in the game.

Vilas Shinde, a farmer and exporter, was among those who went bust in 2010. But unlike most traders, he paid farmers their due by selling his land (he lost ₹6.5 crore that year). In 2011, Shinde set up Sahyadri Farmer Producer Company Ltd together with 110 shareholder farmers with the aim of exporting grapes. Farmer producer companies are like cooperatives but set up under the Companies Act to ensure little or no bureaucratic and political interference.

Since 2012, when Sahyadri shipped its first containers, its grape export volumes have grown seven-fold to 21,000 tonnes (as of 2024). Because grapes are a seasonal business (peaking between January and March, during harvest and shipping) Sahyadri diversified into other crops such as tomato (it is currently the largest processor of tomatoes in India and a contract manufacturer for Hindustan Unilever’s Kissan ketchup brand), bananas, pomegranate, sweet corn, mangoes, and cashews. The company’s 120-acre campus in Mohadi, Nashik, is a post-harvest hub with packhouses, cold storages and processing lines for these crops. In FY24, Sahyadri clocked a turnover of ₹1,549 crore, a 55% increase year-on-year.

Sahyadri is now a collective of 26,000 farmers cultivating 40,000 acres. In a way, it is trying to do with perishable horticulture crops (where production and prices often fluctuate wildly) what the Amul cooperative did for small dairy farmers. What’s more, Sahyadri plans to go for a public listing by 2026—that would be a first for a farmer producer company, racing ahead of VC-funded agriculture startups.

In recent years, the challenge for grape growers and exporters has been to arrest falling yields due to recurrent climate shocks (unseasonal rains and hailstorms during flowering and harvest, and high temperatures), Shinde said, while having breakfast inside a canteen in the Sahyadri campus.

“The solution lies in getting farmers the latest varieties that can tolerate erratic weather and requires less growth promoting chemicals. The Thompson variety (from which other varieties were developed) is now 60 years old. So, we decided to intervene," Shinde added.

In 2022, Sahyadri purchased the exclusive rights from Grapa, a California-based breeder, to grow its patented Arra variety of table grapes for a sum of ₹35 crore. By all measures, it was a significant intervention, that too by a farmer-owned company, to get the latest global technology for its growers. In 2024, the first batch of Arra grapes sold for an eyepopping ₹250 per kg in an auction held on a Nashik farm. Growers associated with Sahyadri are gradually replacing their vines with Arra varieties, and expect farmgate price realization to double to ₹150 per kg.

Sahyadri’s intervention with Arra is significant because Indian farmers are often pushed to compete with their global peers but with redundant decades-old seed technology in crops such as cotton and soybean.

Tasting tours

Unlike table grapes, wine grapes are grown differently, usually under a contract farming system. Wine is made by crushing and fermenting seeded grapes (wines are usually named after grape varieties) and the berries are smaller in size; the yields are carefully restricted to 4-5 tonnes per acre (compared to 8-12 tonnes for table grapes) to concentrate flavours and aromas during fermentation of crushed grapes.

The first grape wine manufacturing facility in India was set up by Sula Vineyards in 1999. Of the 80 plus registered wineries in India, Nashik is home to 45, turning itself into a hub for winemaking and tourism.

India’s small domestic grape wine market was estimated to be worth ₹1,345 crore in FY22, with the top three brands—Sula Vineyards, Grover Zampa and Fratelli—commanding 80% market share, as per an industry report by Technopak Advisors. Wine consumption in India is still very limited, estimated at just 37.5 million litres in 2022 (less than 1% of the country’s total alcoholic beverage consumption of 6.2 billion litres). The market is expected to grow as more consumers learn about and graduate to wines. Which is why tasting tours are critical. In FY24, Sula’s Nashik and Bengaluru facilities were visited by 435,000 tourists.

“Wine tourism is a top priority and we are expanding fast… A great harvest, booming wine tourism, and growing consumer preference for our premium Indian wines point to a sunny road ahead," Rajeev Samant, CEO, Sula Vineyards, observed while releasing the FY24 results.

On a Saturday morning earlier this month, Sula Vineyards’ winery in Nashik was bustling with visitors. Many were busy taking selfies standing next to giant wine bottle replicas, or taking a stroll in the vineyards. For a nominal fee one can have a tour of the winery and its tasting room, which was set up back in 2005. Here visitors get a crash course on the history and origin of wines; in the tasting room one learns how to tell one aroma from another, along with trivia and lessons in etiquette: which wines to swirl and which ones not to; from where red wine gets its colour; or the fact that Rosé has nothing to do with roses!