Mahabaleshwar, in the state of Maharashtra, is India’s strawberry capital. The district is home to just over 10,000 people but produces 85 per cent of India’s strawberries—close to 20,000 tonnes of the fruit are harvested every year.
Here and across India, many poorer farmers lack efficient, affordable cold storage for the food they grow. Earlier this year, when dramatic lockdown restrictions closed markets and limited consumer spending, these marginalized farmers faced disaster. Local tourism and demand for ice cream—both of which create opportunities for strawberry farmers—were also badly hit.
Across Mahabaleshwar, farmers faced a loss of around $2.7 million as they were unable to preserve and sell their produce in the domestic market, or export it. But the arrival of three portable solar-powered cold rooms has allowed even small-scale farmers in the district to meet demand in the huge cities of Mumbai and Pune—as well as the further afield markets of Bengaluru, Kochi, and Chennai. Farmers are able to rent small amounts of space in the cold rooms— the perfect solution for those with few savings to invest in large-scale storage.
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