One of India’s most established family names in fresh fruit trading and distribution and one of Europe’s largest fresh produce companies are behind the launch of a vast new fresh fruit-handling facility in Rai, north of Delhi, that is set to go into full operation next month.
Suri Fruit Agency, headed up by brothers Sudhir Suri and Hitin Suri, joined forces with Ireland’s Total Produce back in 2006 to form Suri Agro Fresh. And the New Delhi-based company, which is now handling 2.5m cartons of produce a year, has significantly expanded and diversified its operations since then.
While its core strength remains in distribution of apples and other high-altitude fruits from India’s northern states, Suri Agro Fresh has extended its product range to include large volumes of mangoes, citrus, kiwifruit and pears among other products, according to MD Hitin Suri. It has also grown its already substantial distribution network and become an authorised distributor for the likes of New Zealand kiwifruit marketer Zespri, the Indian arm of multinational Unifrutti and heavyweights in the domestic apple industry Fresh & Healthy Enterprises and Adani Agrifresh.
Part of its diversification has involved a foray into the cold chain industry. Driven by a goal to match international standards in handling and storage and set new quality benchmarks for Indian produce, Suri Agrofresh recently invested in the construction of what it describes as a “state-of-the-art, multipurpose fresh fruit handling complex” in HSIIDC Rai Food Park north of Delhi.
The facility, which goes into full operation in March, comprises 26 controlled atmosphere chambers, six modified atmosphere chambers, eight pressurised ripening rooms, dedicated degreening rooms for oranges and mangoes, two deep freeze facilities, a 30,000ft2 dry warehouse, a 10,000ft2 packing area and on-demand reefer trucks.
Mr Suri said the new operation is geographically well located in an approved food park on National Highway Number 1, the main arterial route linking Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh to Delhi.
Most of the equipment for the facility has been imported from multinational companies, such as ICA for the controlled atmosphere technology and York International and Carrier for the refrigeration systems, he added.
The construction cost of the new operation is estimated to reach almost R400m (US$8.75m), most of that coming from the four directors Hitin Suri, Sudhir Suri, Frank Davis and Eugene Caulfield, with around 25 per cent sourced through government subsidy.
“This is a fully integrated facility with a mix of different technologies, such as ripening, storage and freezing. It provides customers with every service they may require under one roof and we expect this unique model to be emulated by others,” said Mr Suri.
“CA storage is an up and coming technology that has huge scope for Indian produce, which is not currently handled correctly. We want our fruit to match international quality standards so we can achieve a similar price to what we get for imported fruits.”
Mr Suri was swift to emphasise that the large-scale facility is just one part of the cold chain, however, and Suri Agro Fresh is seeking to extend its presence to the other parts of the chain. “We’ve already embarked on initatives to achieve this, such as the initiation of our project in Shopian in Jammu & Kashmir which ensures the quality of fruit we procure from Kashmir is graded and packed in the right way,” he added.
