GreenPod Labs

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: During the banana procurement for export market - several quality parameters are measured but the documentation is not done properly by majority of customers. This is massive problem to completely build transparency and predictability. While we were looking at bring in data science to eliminate human labor to quantify the quality parameters, they by-product is to keep a digital record of all the quality parameters across all the procurement. This would help the customer constantly improve their crop procurement practices and processes. Below is an example of digitizing pulp % of banana using AI/ML. #banana #exports #greenpodlabs

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: The fresh produce supply chain is extremely complex. Even different varieties of the same crop need completely different supply chain practices to effectively maintain quality and achieve highest economic gains. When we were spending time in Muzaffarpur, Bihar for the Litchi value chain. The two major varieties - Shahi and China variety had completely different quality and supply chain challenges. Shahi variety would turn brown within 48 hours after harvest. However, China variety is more prone to mold growth within 48 hours than the browning of the fruit. While developing processes, technology, and systems - we need to be cognizant of these inherent differences in the varieties. Closely working with the customers in the market helps us understand the nuances much better and build products accordingly. #litchi #greenpodlabs #innovation #foodloss #valuechain

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: More than a post-harvest company GreenPod Labs is a crop-science company. Understanding the industry practices from the customers and mapping them with the theoretical crop understanding - helps us to build the product more precisely. One of the recent examples of this: For the banana export during the crop procurement - pulp % is a very critical crop quality parameter. Customers take the middle banana finger in each bunch of bananas to measure pulp% - they felt this data is more reliable. When we went deeper and understood the reason behind this. The banana cell division starts from the middle finger in a bunch - this translates into reaching a higher crop maturing within the bunch first. Thus measuring the middle finger gives the most accurate maturity levels for crop procurement. Mapping the crop theoretical understanding with the on-filed practices bridges the gap between our R&D and customers. #banana #maturity #greenpodlabs #innovation #foodloss

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: While exploring the Litchi domestic and export opportunities, we were looking at how other countries were doing. We were super surprised to see Madagascar contributes to 35% of global exports despite a production volume of 100,000 tons annual production. India is the second largest producer of Litchi but contributes to less than 1% of the global export. This leaves such a huge opportunity on the table. #Lychee #India #Litchi #Innovation #Export Link: https://lnkd.in/g_pn3krE

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: Geopolitical issues have a direct impact on global agriculture trade. A clear example was seen between Russia and Ecuador for banana exports. Ecuador used to export bananas worth $780 Mn to Russia. However, the banana trade was impacted due to geopolitical tensions between the two countries. Russia and India got on trade relations for multiple agricultural commodities such as bananas and papaya. This poses a huge opportunity and challenges as well. The sea travel from India to Russia would take 45 to 60 days - maintaining the highest quality during this journey becomes a prime requirement to maximize this potential. APEDA and Indian Exporters are actively evaluating this opportunity. Farm maintenance, crop care, infrastructure, packaging, supply chain parameters, and end-to-end focus are needed on this journey. Link: https://lnkd.in/gmtRUrxG #banana #greenpodlabs #innovation #russia #india

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: There are more than 20 different varieties of banana grown in India and only 4 to 5 varieties are exported to International markets. There is a huge potential in exploring export opportunities of other indigenous varieties from India. Maintaining the crop quality throughout the supply chain is the major reason why other varieties are not explored. Navigating this through technology would create a strong market differentiator in the export market. A few things that can be done: 1. Out of 20 varieties, which are the varieties that are more robust and equivalent to the G9 variety (major variety exported to international markets). This gives a good starting point. Red Banana is one example (it is currently shipped to UAE but not to other countries) 2. Ground up structuring the agriculture practices, fruit care, and infrastructure for these selected varieties 3. Building customized supply chain practices to accommodate the new variety GreenPod Labs is passionate about exploring these untapped opportunities and facilitating them. #greenpodlabs #innovation #banana

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: In the last several months we Changed our market research process. Instead of just speaking with the management or owner of the supply chain players - we started interacting with all the stakeholders involved throughout the value chain. For example, working on the banana export supply chain - we spoke with farmers, farm selecting supervisors, packers, exporters, transporters, and importers and we understood the friction point at each stage of the value chain. This gave us a ton of insights into the bottlenecks and presented our solution to fit that gap well. It is not just pitching to the customer that matters, understanding their operations end-to-end and pitching makes a huge difference. #greenpodlabs #innovation Image Courtesy: https://lnkd.in/gJEcBGpS

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: We recently started spending time to understand the Litchi value chain in India. Closer to about 40% of litchis are produced in Bihar, and Muzaffarpur district is the major growing belt. Challenges in the value chain: 1. Litchi growing season is between May 15th and June 20th - a very very short season. 2. Litchi's shelf life is less than 48 hours, making it hard to transport to any long distance. Thus majority of Litchis are transported by air travel 3. No proper supply chain practices such as packaging, cleaning, logistics We saw a huge opportunity in this and started working on a product to extend the shelf life of litchis at ambient temperature. We strongly believe this can create a huge impact on the ecosystem. We'd love to speak with any companies or individuals actively working in the litchi value chain.

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: Jalgaon GI Tagged Banana Untapped Goldmine: Export bananas from Maharashtra are sourced from a few locations such as Tembhurni, Jalgaon, etc. to markets such as Iran, Iraq, UAE, and Russia. From the market understanding, we learned that exporters prefer Tembhurni bananas over Jalgaon for a few reasons: 1. The crop quality in Tembhurni is superior to that of Jalgaon 2. Access to cold storage is more in Tembhurni 3. Destination market spoilage/ overripening is more in bananas sourced from Jalgaon than in Tembhurni In spite of all these challenges, the opportunities in Jalgaon are significantly more such as: 1. Jalgaon has GI-tagged bananas in the state - more unique from the marketing perspective 2. Jalgaon bananas are priced at Rs 4 to 5 per Kg less than Tembhurni banana 3. Average production volume in Jalgaon is 70 tons/ha, average production volume is 55 tons/ha in Tembhurni To facilitate more exports from Jalgaon, GreenPod Labs is focused on providing solutions that maintain the quality of bananas from Jalgaon throughout the export supply chain irrespective of quality inconsistency and domestic banana supply chain. It's critical to unlock all these opportunities to significantly increase banana exports from India to the global market. Super excited about the opportunity forward. #banana #exports #innovation #greenpodlabs Image Courtesy: https://lnkd.in/gRfdu7E8

GreenPod Labs Market Insights: In the next 5 years, the Indian government wants to increase our banana exports to $1 Billion annually. In 2023, we reached closer to $250 Mn - ie 4x growth in the next 5 years. India is well-positioned in terms of production volume accounting for 26.45% of the world's total production (2022). Now to meet the export targets, we need to focus on a few things: 1. Improve crop care and farm management. This is a massive problem since we need to meet the global export quality demands 2. Expand the export market opportunity beyond Iran, Iraq, and UAE to Russia, Europe, the US, etc. This translates to maintaining the quality for more than 45 to 60 days of supply chain 3. Improve post-harvest management - storage, packaging, logistics, etc. There is a strong need to adopt new technologies and structures within this ecosystem to hit a massive scale 4. Providing the basic support system to facilitate anyone to enter into the export opportunity irrespective of the volume India is in the right position to build its base to become one of the major banana exporters in the world in the next few years. The Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) GreenPod Labs #banana #export #growth #potential #global #greenpodlabs #innovation Graph Link: https://lnkd.in/ga36XJpX