Through a wide net of subsidiaries and partners, IG International is staying true to its name as it expands its global reach, with a long-term goal of bringing technical expertise and better fruit and vegetable varieties to India. At www.freshfruitportal.com, we caught up with a few company representatives to discuss a wide range of topics, from Canadian greenhouses to Belgian apple breeding to varietal diversity sparked by the Russian embargo on EU fruit.

Not to be confused with a Californian pomegranate company, IG incorporated Ruby Fresh LLC last year in New York with the aim of sourcing U.S. produce for its international distribution base, along with products from Chile, South Africa and New Zealand.

But the group still has one step to go before its strategic move into North America truly gets up and running.

"Currently we are looking to greenhouses in a big way. Very soon we will have an acquisition in North America as well," IG director Tarun Arora told www.freshfruitportal.com.

"We're looking at greenhouse businesses in Canada and we're also looking at the greenhouse business in India as well, exploring our options and identifying land.

"That's where I see the future, and that’s something which will be driven primarily with the knowledge and technological know-how of Ruby Fresh."

The operation will serve a sourcing purpose initially, particularly for tomatoes which will potentially be organic, and Arora said it would have a strong push in the next 10 years that would also help IG learn more about protected horticulture.

"I think in India the greenhouse business and hydroponics are not the same, so it's about learning the business and how it's been done...and maybe bringing a technical team back to India to grow the same quality greenhouse produce.

"In the back of the mind is our Czech company as well, as British Columbia has the late cherry season and a lot of post-harvest knowledge as they ship to China which takes 30 days.

"So we are thinking about that for the benefit of our Czech cherry orchards, as from Rotterdam or Livorno it can take as good as 17 days to get to Nhava Sheva in Mumbai."

IG's Belgian boom

In a similar vein, the company has been working closely with Belgian nursery René Nicolaï, trying to stay ahead of the curve in terms of which new varieties could be of interest to Asian palates; and that's not only for Indians, as the company has a Hong Kong-based subsidiary Get Fresh which focuses on the Chinese market, with offices in Guangzhou, Beijing, Shanghai and Yantai.

Additionally the group also has distribution throughout Southeast Asia.

"I think Evelina is a very good apple - it's very to the liking of the Asian taste, and it's still crunchy after one year. We are in discussions with growers with growers to try and plant more of that.

"At René Nicolaï they are trying to influence a lot of farmers to grow apples which are to the taste of Asians. For example I think the Pacific series from New Zealand is the kind of taste that is liked by all Asians, and we've set that as a benchmark to beat.

"I’ve seen some varieties in the trials in Belgium which I'm very keen about and I think some of those can do very well. They've already started to trial production so very soon they’ll have a larger amount of production."

He said Belgian pome fruit in general had been a big hit in India this season, with expectations volumes for the Lucas cooking pear alone would reach 5,000 metric tons (MT) for the campaign.

"I think the price was very competitive so people have accepted that in a very good way. They started liking the taste because it’s very crunchy, is high on acid and it has good juice.

"This year has been a year of new varieties. We've launched around 10 varieties which people have accepted, and they’ve done very well in the market, like Evelina, and the Modi apple has done very well for us because it resembles our prime minister's name."

Kulwinder Singh, IG's man on the ground in Belgium, said the wide availability in Belgian fruit was largely a result of the Russian ban.

"The Belgians couldn’t send to Russia, so they are moving into India. Prices are low and there's a big supply – one of the companies that is exporting to IG now from Belgium, they were totally focused on Russia before - 100%," Singh said.

"%. Every week they were selling 50-100 trucks to Russia, so you can imagine how they were. We cannot take 100 but we are doing our best to take 10-15 trucks every week, and keeping it consistent for each one of them.

"The season will go until May for apples and pears from Belgium...they had a lot of Conference. We tried Conference and we failed, so we won’t be bringing more of that," added Arora.

The director said the increased variety had led to a big change in apple retailing for Indian consumers.

"It had never been the case that the Indian shelf looks like the European or American, wherein the focus for the supermarkets has been in the varieties, but this year it has been," he said.

"It has been a positive change – on one hand it has opened something new out of the box which was never used earlier because we had been so used to the same programs each year."

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