The Global Indian Mandi : A "non-Traditional" Indian Proposition

Lakhi Baug at Darbhanga, Bihar was an orchard which Emperor Akbar had created which housed 1,00,000mango trees. Reliance Industries has tried to match the feat through its orchard in Jamnagar where it has planted 1,03,000 mango trees. The company was required to plant a compensatory forest around its 33 milliontonne refinery in Jamnagar, which has led to a brand, which we might become familiar with as Reliance Mangoes. The orchard is expected to produce 3600 tonnes of mangoes by the end of this year. It also plans to export the produce throughout the world and is currently in dialogue with supermarkets in Europe. The urge to stand out of the clutter is making corporates look at new channels and markets through which profits can flow in. The business scene is changing at a furious rate and “non-traditional” is the way to achieve success. This article will talk about the changing scene of the non-traditional vegetable export market and the potential of the Indian Banana in European markets.

An approach which is not common and has a differentiation attached to it can be termed as a “non-traditional” approach. For e.g. the Sari is the Indian woman’s traditional dress. If she wears a business suit, it would be non-traditional with respect to the Indian frame of reference, though it might be traditional with respect to the Western frame of reference.

Bananas: Going the non-traditional way!

The first question to be addressed is what does the non-traditional fruits and vegetables market entail? By our definition, in the Indian frame of reference, non-traditional fresh produce includes all the fruits and vegetables which do not traditionally form a major part of the Indian export basket but hold the potential to do so in the near future. This potential can be measured in terms of India’s ability to produce these at a lower price and maintain a consistent supply. This potential can be tapped by exporting them to markets like Europe, Japan, Middle East and South-East Asia, where they are produced at higher costs or not produced at all in some seasons due to the extreme weather conditions faced by these countries. An example of this is the Snow Peas, which are widely exported to Europe from South Africa and can be produced even in India at a lower cost and in seasons when Europe can not produce them. Does this not give us a good enough reason to look at this market? The total world trade in non-traditional fruits and vegetables is worth US$15.5 billion. The developing countries’ combined share of non-traditional fruit and vegetable exports has increased to 56 percent. The numbers show us that, there is indeed, a huge market opportunity!

Mahabanana speaks volumes about the opportunities that are available for Indian exports of non-traditional fruits and vegetables and India’s ability to take on the major dominant