Israel-based Sam Agritech Group is pioneering a pomegranate project in India where the Bhagwa variety is cultivated and harvested, before the delicate process of extracting ready-to-eat arils for year-round supply.

Speaking with www.freshfruitportal.com from Hyderabad, David Levin from Sam Agritech says the operations in India are going from strength to strength as demand for super-healthy arils soars in markets all over the world.

"We figured out many years ago the world will be flooded with pomegranates as a whole fruit, but also that demand for arils would seriously increase, as more people become aware of the fruit’s amazing health properties, it’s beauty and fantastic taste," Levin says.

"On the other hand, most people tend to avoid the process of actually peeling a pomegranate and getting the arils out which can be quite tricky and very messy.

"They want the convenience of having ready-to-eat arils; most end-consumers don't want to get dirty and it's just too labor intensive but still they are attracted to the arils so instead they go into retailers and pick up some nicely packaged arils in order to get this excellent healthy food."

Levin believed in this concept from the start and so set about ramping up pomegranate production and expanding the infrastructure to cope with orders from the U.K.’s leading supermarkets like Tesco, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Morrisons and Marks & Spencer.

Hand-picking arils is a delicate process

Levin explains that as growers, processors, packers and exporters, the business model is to control all aspects of the supply chain to ensure high quality and due diligence as well as taking social responsibility of working in India very seriously.

"Every step of the process is of the highest standards that’s for sure."

Aside from controlling production of the fruit, there are two operations where the labor intensive process of aril extraction takes place.

"We are very sensitive about the process of taking out the arils from the fruit itself which is extremely delicate work.

"The secret is not to harm the individual arils because once you do this and an aril is harmed, injured or scratched in some way, it will lose shelf life.

“We are proud that ours will last around 14 days after going through the process which is a long time and this can only be achieved by going through a very special and sensitive procedure."

Main markets for arils

Branded as Pick Me, aril shipments are transported by air from either Bangalore or Hyderabad directly into Britain via a daily flight schedule of usually five per week. On arrival they are repacked and distributed to retailers.

"The U.K. market is growing, unfortunately there is a lot of competition, but we are much further ahead in terms of quality and technical aspects.

"The U.K. used to be our major market, but now we have spread out to the U.S. East Coast, where we manage to compete with California. We sell in Europe quite a bit and are proud to have two high-tech facilities in India; one in Hyderabad and the other in Bangalore to keep pace with this sort of demand.

"They are both state of the art and we’ve invested a lot in them and have the highest food safety standards and certification."

Levin used to only produce pomegranates in his native Israel, but because of a shorter season decided to start-up operations in India to secure year-round supply.

"The product is seasonable in Israel and the season ends in January so it's a supply of around five months.

"But here in India, we can guarantee the arils will be on the shelves all the way through the year.

"The Indian variety is also very well suited for the production of excellent arils which is another plus point."

Photo: www.shutterstock.com

www.freshfruitportal.com