About 10 years ago, two close friends of mine built a farm-to-market start-up that was distinctly ahead of its time. They were some of the first people who began to talk about the fact that a lot of fresh food (not just the processed variety) in Indian markets seemed to be imported.
They wondered why this was the case since India ranks among the top two producers of fruits and vegetables in the world. The conclusion that emerged after a lot of field research and pilot projects was that it was simply too tough to bring kiwi from, say, the Ziro Valley to Khanna Market in Delhi. It was easier to import kiwi from New Zealand than bring it from Arunachal Pradesh. This has now changed as kiwi from Arunachal Pradesh has finally started to appear in the markets of Delhi. This has happened at the same time when a new international airport has been announced in Noida, neighbouring Delhi, which when complete is likely to be the biggest in India, surpassing the one in Delhi. India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, of which Noida is a part, has jumped from two to nine airports in the last seven years, and is building 1,300 kilometres of expressways. Airports for instance have a domino effect on everything including land prices.
I was thinking about all this when I was looking at some research on three products that could be definitive for the economy of the newly created Union territory of Ladakh—apricot, sea buckthorn and pashmina.
India imports a lot of its apricots from Afghanistan, a route whose future is now uncertain. Currently, the fruit is a delicacy (like in Hyderabad’s favourite Khubani ka Meetha) and also used as a natural pain relief oil. I buy mine from a start-up in Uttarakhand. The sea buckthorn plant is loaded with vitamins and is used in a range of products from anti-inflammatory medicine to anti-ageing potions. It is the sort of shrub that might be called a ‘super plant’ in common parlance. As is well known, traditionally, Ladakh produced the pashmina that was made into fine shawls in Kashmir, some of which even reached Josephine, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte. But the material from Ladakh could build its own unique identity, design sensibility and expand markets.
What connects all these stories? It is something that I call the ‘kiwi paradigm’, which is about the ease of domestic consumption of national goods and produce. What are the methods through which local producers and suppliers could benefit from accessing deeper and wider markets within the country? One is obviously infrastructure—simply, good roads and airports would ensure, and are ensuring, far greater discovery of products from different parts of the country. This crisscrossing of goods and produce is not just economics and trade, it is nation-building. We are still at a phase of India’s nationalism where various parts of the country need to learn, appreciate and respect each other’s similarities, differences and uniqueness much more.
Direct-to-customer in India is not just about start-ups, it is about national integration. This will become more important and urgent in the coming days as two things start to happen—one, global warming, which would impact parts of the country in ways that can trigger greater resource demand, and second, migration, coupled with the issues unlocked by global warming, that would make any resource inequity starker than ever. Therefore, a deeper net of interwoven domestic buyers and sellers who consume not just products but also local culture is important. Interdependence and interconnection between various parts of the country is one of the fundamental ways that India could build a stronger integrated response to the challenges that global warming is set to throw upon us. With a common understanding and appreciation of the challenges faced by different regions, our response and redressal strategy would be far more effective.
Every kiwi one might eat from Arunachal Pradesh is a reminder of the geopolitical challenges of this state that lies at the border of India and China, and the importance of maintaining our mountain ecosystems in the face of climate crisis.
Hindol Sengupta
Vice President & Head of Research at Invest India, GoI’s national investment promotion agency
(hindol.opinion@gmail.com)