Indian fresh fruit importer IG International has announced a joint venture initiative with independently-owned orchard and horticultural research centre Deccan Exotics to establish a plant nursery for avocados.

The nursery will be located near Hyderabad, in southern India's Telangana state, with an initial investment of US$1 million.

The joint venture company, IG Deccan, will in the first phase establish a plant nursery for growing avocados, where the vision will be to generate 5 million trees in the next five years, IG International said in a statement.

The joint venture company will handle all the new varieties from the international breeding companies and help with sublicensing for cultivators in India, it added.

“Growth is vital, and when to cascade to the next level is even more important in the D2C market. Our joint venture with a pioneering company like Deccan Exotics will help us create a blooming biome for avocado exclusively for our buyers in India, and it will also create an opportunity for India to be the next big avocado market for importers abroad,” IG International Director of Finance and Operations Tarun Arora said.

In 2019 Fresh Fruit Portal reported that a separate project was underway to pioneer commercial avocado production in India, amid expectations that a sizeable industry could eventually develop.

India does not currently produce avocados on a commercial scale, but consumer appetite has been growing over recent years.