India is an agriculture based country. Hundreds of fruits and vegetables types are grown in all parts of India. Fresh fruit and vegetable reach small scale fruits vegetables suppliers, they are then sent to local markets as well as fruits and vegetables exporters. Last decades have seen the number of Indian fruit vegetables suppliers and fruits vegetables exporters rising to an all time high. Especially there has been a steep rise in the number of vegetable exporters.

The total production of fruits and vegetables in the world is around 370 MT. India ranks first in the world with an annual output of 32 MT. While there are almost 180 families of fruits that are grown all over the world, citrus fruits constitute around 20% of world’s total fruit production. Major Indian fruits consist of mango, banana, citrus fruits, apple, guava, papaya, pineapple and grapes. The fruits are processed into various products such as fruit juices & concentrates, canned fruit, dehydrated fruit, jams & jellies etc.

India with its current production of around 32 million MT of fruit, accounts for about 8% of the world’s fruit production. The diverse agro-climatic zones the country make it possible to grow almost all varieties of fresh fruits and vegetables in India. The fruit production in India has recorded a growth rate of 3.9%, whereas the fruit processing sector has grown at about 20% per annum. However, the growth rates have been extensively higher for frozen fruits & vegetables (121%) and dehydrated fruits & vegetables (24%). There exist over 4000 fruit processing units in India with an aggregate capacity of more than 12 lakh MT (less than 4% of total fruits produced). It is estimated that around 20% of the production of processed fruits is meant for exports, the rest caters to the defense, institutional sectors and household consumption, Mango and mango-based products constitute 50% of exports.

India is the second largest producer of vegetables in the world (ranks next to China) and accounts for about 15% of the world’s production of vegetables. The current production level is over 71 million MT and the total area under vegetable cultivation is around 6.2 million hectares which is about 3% of the total area under cultivation in the country. In case of vegetables, potato, tomato, onion, cabbage and cauliflower account for around 60% of the total vegetable production in the country. Vegetables are typically grown in India in field conditions, the concept is opposed to the cultivation of vegetables in green houses as practiced in developed countries for high yields.

The fruit and vegetable processing industry in India is highly decentralized. A large number of units are in the cottage/home scale and small scale sector, having small capacities upto 250 tonnes/annum. But big Indian and multinational companies in the sector have large capacities in the range of 30 tonnes per hour or so. Since liberalisation and withdrawal of excise duty on fruit and vegetable products there has been significant rise in the growth rate of the industry.