Ashok Mothiramji Kope, a farmer in Jarud village in Maharashtra’s Amravati district, is a happy man these days as the shelf-life of his “Nagpur” oranges has increased by 3-4 times. It is, in turn, helping him reap higher yields.
Mothiramji is among the 400-plus farmers in thedistrict, famous for its oranges, empowered by AllFresh Supply Chain Management Pvt Ltd through a well-mechanised handling of oranges at the origin. The company has been able to stretch the longevity of the fruit as a result.
The Secretary of the Utkranti Agro Producer Company Limited in Jarud, Kope, told businessline that farmers supplying oranges to AllFresh get more income compared with local traders or selling at mandis (agricultural produce marketing committee yards). A day before procurement, AllFresh provides farmers the rate — the average price for last week was ₹28-30 per kg — at which it will procure the fruit, and the farmers can decide if they want to supply. The company is handling the fruits using machines — stretching the fruit’s longevity and the reducing the wastage,” he said.
Empowering the hundreds of farmers is Naresh Jawa, CEO of AllFresh, a part of the Chennai-based WayCool Enterprise, whose mission is to ensure the longevity of the fruits and reduce wastage. A mechanical engineer, he has succeeded in both, and is empowering farmers in the orange capital of Amravati..
Thanks to AllFresh’s efforts, the oranges stay fresh for up to 40 days against the conventional timeframe of a week or ten days. He has managed to reduce wastage to nearly 2 per cent as against the normal 14-15 per cent. “We get the oranges directly from the farmers. There is no middleman. We pay all the farmers directly. It is a transparent system. We advise the rates at which we will buy a day before the farmer has to do harvesting. He gets to know our rates and is able to compare this with other sources where he can send the fruit and get the payment,” Jawa told businessline at the company’s Morshi facility.
“Many of the traders are unhappy with me for adopting such a trade practice. However, I continue to do what I feel is good for the farmers and for the company. Nearly 400 orange farmers are working with us,” he said.
The blistering heat of the sun at around 40 degrees was unbearable while inside AllFresh’s facility in Morshi, the second largest town in the Amravati district, over 25 workers were busy sorting and packing the oranges.
AllFresh, a fruit supply chain specialist company, procures the best quality fruits from farmers and farmer producer organisations (FPOs) from their farms. The 20-year-old machine does multi-tasking. Once the oranges are loaded into the machine, it removes the moisture; the wax is sprayed and sorting is done depending on the size. The fruits are packed and sent across India.
Waxing
The fruit’s longevity is improved by waxing it. AllFresh was the first Indian company to start waxing way back in 2013. Then, the company did 100 tonnes while this year, it is trying to do 10,000 tonnes. “The fruit’s life is now almost 20 days, and if kept in the cold storage and regulated temperature, it has a life of over 40 days,” he said.
If the fruit was not waxed, the life would not be more than ten days. It is very difficult to send it to far-away places like the North East.
On wastage, Jawa said, if the fruit is handled systematically and scientifically after harvest, and waxed, it can have a long shelf-life. This is crucial to reduce the wastage of the fruit in the supply chain. In a normal mandi supply chain, the loss is nearly 14 per cent while we are able to contain those losses to less than 2 per cent. That is our profit. That is how we are able to manage our business,” he said.
The mission of both WayCool and AllFresh together is to to reduce pre- and post-harvest wastage and realise better value for farmers, using knowledge and technology. Allfresh has also been collaborating with both domestic and international scientists to enhance post-harvest management practices, he said.
(The writer was in Amravati district at the company’s invitation)