Figs, pineapples and mushrooms

Dear Reader,

This week’s newsletter is mostly about food and food entrepreneurship. I will begin with an engineer from Kolhapur (Maharashtra), who went to Tripura for a holiday and was so smitten by the state and its sweet and juicy pineapples that he set up a food processing plant three years later.

Adwait Kulkarni’s unit is in Kumarghat, the state’s highest pineapple producer. He has also introduced corn farming in the area and now provides assured livelihood to 30 underprivileged women and 60 farmers from whom he procures pineapple for processing. My colleague Partho writes that Adwait’s annual revenue in just three years has reached 1.5 crore and he is now set to expand to ready-to-cook food products. The target for this fiscal is Rs3 crore. 

From Telangana, my colleague Anu wrote a story on organic fig farming by Katla Srinivas. An MBA, he quit his job with Red Chillies Entertainment to grow figs in his village. He harvests 4500 kg of figs per acre and sells them directly to customers, earning Rs 5 lakh per acre. 

Last week, I spoke to Shashi Bhushan Tiwari, who came to Delhi from Muzaffarpur in Bihar for a job and became a vegetable trader in the Azadpur Mandi, earning very well for himself and his family. 

When trading stopped during COVID-19, he had to return to his village,  where he started a button mushroom production unit. Now he earns Rs2 lakh daily by selling 1700 kg of mushrooms in Bihar, the North Eastern states, Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh. The story details how he built this business in just four years. So, if mushroom entrepreneurship is on your mind, this one is for you. 

From Kerala, my colleague Chandhini spoke to Dr Hari Muraleedharan, a scientist turned farmer growing thousands of exotic fruit varieties using natural farming over just 0.6 acres. From Australian cherry and Spanish lime to wax apples, he has fruits from across the world. He sells their saplings and offers consultation services, but the fruits are for birds, animals and visitors to his farm. They are not for sale!

Our Sunday story is on the fading opulence of Chettinad’s 10,000 abandoned mansions built by the Nattukottai Chettiar merchants in the bygone centuries. Do read it to know why the palatial mansions, each with over 25-30 rooms, are in a state of disrepair today.

In the Money section, my colleague Karan wrote about the ten best hybrid funds, which are safe investment options for equity and mutual fund investors worried about high stock prices. 

Happy Reading!

Warmly,

Rashmi