India's Rising Perishable Industry Seeks A Friendly Hand

Seems like Alphonso the ‘king of mangoes’ which have captured the fantasies of world famous chefs, is going to make it to the tables of few more lucky souls, reason being India’s growing emphasis on agri-export. The hunger is not only for mangoes but a wide range of fruits and vegetables, seasoned by the country’s diverse climate. Indian growers have contributed to the world food basket for years and the recent budget wherein the government has indicated its ambitions to take agriexports from $30 billion to $100 billion seems to be in complete sync with the growers’ growing aspirations. They now look up at the air cargo industry as an influential partner in the success story.

Kay Bee Exports is an Indian fresh produce export company that has been into business for 29 years. The company that was started by Prakash Khakhar, chairman, Kay Bee Exports, on a small scale with initially exporting mangoes has come a long way and now exports a wide range of fruits and vegetables worldwide amounting to 6000 tonnes of air freight per year. In an exclusive interview with Shreya Bhattacharya, his son and CEO of the company Kaushal Khakhar speaks about the company’s expectations from the air cargo industry.

- Shreya Bhattacharya

Do you think the aviation industry is taking enough measures to meet shipper’s requirements? What kinds of initiatives by them have given impetus to the evolving perishable industry in India?

Airlines have continued to add to their technological strengths. The terminals are also definitely improving. The Cargo Service Centre at Mumbai is a big step up, but challenge is capacity constraints, so the new airport at Panvel (Navi Mumbai), or adding more capacity in Mumbai, those are the steps which are going to happen but it needs to happen soon.

Do you think the care and emotions with which you handle your produce is continued throughout in the supply chain while exporting? Where are the bottlenecks and loopholes?