Fresh Produce India Awards: winners announced

Leading greengrocer chain KPN Farm Fresh, the World Avocado Organisation, and major farmer-owned fresh produce supplier Sahyadri Farms are the winners of the inaugural Fresh Produce India Awards.

The winners of the prestigious awards were announced at Fresh Produce India 2025, India’s premier annual fresh fruit and vegetable business event, taking place at the Trident Nariman Point Hotel in Mumbai on 3-4 April 2025.

The Fresh Produce India Awards are presented by Fruitnet Media International to celebrate excellence and recognise outstanding achievement in India’s fast-developing fresh fruit and vegetable business. The awards are given in three categories: India Business, India Marketing Campaign, and India Impact.

INDIA BUSINESS 2025: KPN FARM FRESH

Tamil Nadu-based greengrocer chain KPN Farm Fresh scooped the India Business Award. Short for Kovai Pazhamudhir Nilayam, KPN started out as a single push-cart vendor in Coimbatore in the 1960s. The family-run business – now headed up by Senthil Natarajan (son of co-founder N Natarajan) – emerged to become a leading fruit and vegetable chain with stores throughout Tamil Nadu. In 2023, private equity firm WestBridge Capital acquired a majority stake in the business.

KPN Farm Fresh was recognised for its compelling fresh produce offering, innovative business approach, and impressive expansion. The retailer has rapidly grown its network to more than 150 stores across Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad as well as smaller cities. And it has revealed plans to more than double store numbers in the 2025/26 fiscal year. KPN has made significant investment in its supply chain operations, opening ten collection centres to serve more than 1,000 farmers. The retailer has also innovated to offer rapid online delivery for its customers, fulfilling over 1m orders every month.

Dinesh Sarda, founder director of KPN Farm Fresh, accepted the India Business 2025 Award.

“This award recognises that if you do anything with your heart, you will succeed – it’s just a matter of time,” said Sarda. “From selling baskets of fruit carried on-head to now selling 14,000 tonnes of fruit every month, it has been a remarkable journey. This award is a milestone and inspires us to do more for our customers and make KPN Farm Fresh even bigger and better.”

INDIA MARKETING CAMPAIGN 2025: WORLD AVOCADO ORGANISATION 

The India Marketing Award went to the World Avocado Organisation (WAO), a non-profit organisation which represents producers, exporters and importers of avocados around the world.

WAO was recognised for its marketing campaign in India to educate consumers and food businesses about the health benefits of avocados and how best to use the fruit in varied Indian cuisines. Launched in 2024 and expanded in 2025, the campaign was singled out for boosting consumer awareness and uptake of avocados on a modest budget, and with an effective localisation strategy.

The 2024 campaign worked with Sanjeev Kapoor and a range of other celebrity chefs to promote creative ways of incorporating avocados into Indian cuisines. It also partnered with influential doctors and celebrity nutritionists to conduct outreach on the health benefits of the ‘superfruit’.

Using WAO social media handles, the campaign targeted both digital and print media and built a large online following, with more than 106mn followers and 25mn impressions. The 2025 campaign builds on these activities with the launch of a joint promotion with Haldiram’s, one of India’s largest QSR chain and snack food companies. WAO has collaborated with an Indian MasterChef contestant and the restaurant team to develop Indian ‘Desi’ avocado recipes and launch the range across Haldiram’s’ stores.

Zac Bard, chairman of the World Avocado Organisation, accepted the award, together with Sumit Saran of India food marketing consultancy SS Associates.

“The World Avocado Organisation is delighted to receive this award as we strive to educate and inspire more consumers around the world,” said Bard. “Our campaign across India only started two years ago and with such diverse dialects and customs across the country, we had to adapt specific activities to ensure our global intentions were locally specific.

“With avocados’ nutritional health benefits being so well suited to support a healthier Indian diet, we are thrilled consumers around the country have taken to this new fruit with such gusto.”

INDIA IMPACT 2025: SAHYADRI FARMS

Sahyadri Farms was presented with the India Impact Award for its pioneering role in enabling smallholder farmers and advancing India’s fresh produce industry.

Founded in 2010, Sahyadri Farms started out as a small group of farmers to produce and export grapes for the European market. The farmer producer organisation’s (FPO) network has grown to encompass more than 250 villages, 31,000 acres (12,500ha) and more than 26,500 registered farmers. Today, it is the largest FPO in India as well as the nation’s largest table grape exporter and grower-processor of tomatoes while leading the way in several other categories.

Sahyadri Farms was recognised for its success in bringing farmers into a modern, integrated value chain for key crops such as grapes, mangoes, bananas, and pomegranates, ensuring higher returns and promoting sustainability. The group’s diversification into processed and value-added products such as aseptic purees, juice concentrates and freeze-dried and spray-dried products – supported by investments in high-tech facilities – have also stabilised returns for farmers.

Sahyadri Farms has been an industry leader in sustainability initiatives. These include plans for a zero-waste facility with generation of 5 megawatts of electricity supplied via solar panels and biogas generated from daily waste; an effluent treatment plant whose water is further used to process algae as crop nutrient; and a division processing peels and waste into oils and powders.

Sahyadri Farms has been instrumental in introducing new proprietary table grape varieties from international breeding programmes to India. Such varieties are beginning to deliver significant benefits to Indian farmers and consumers. It is now working to replicate that success in citrus and recently became a licensee for the patented Tango mandarin variety.

Azhar Tambuwala, director of Sahyadri Farms, collected the award.

“We have been the recipient of many awards over the years, acknowledging our work, however this award from Fruitnet stands out high on the list, as Fruitnet is an organisation at the forefront of the fresh produce business with a global presence. For their global jury to acknowledge and find us worthy amongst other stalwarts is very humbling.”

Presenting the Fresh Produce India Awards, managing director of Fruitnet Asia, John Hey, said Fruitnet was delighted to recognise the outstanding efforts of the winners.

“We heartily congratulate our fantastic winners,” said Hey. “All three are to be commended on their trailblazing work. They’re setting a very high standard, not only within the Indian fresh produce business, but also internationally.”