India’s horticulture scale highlights a retail supply-chain value gap
Horticulture production is projected to reach 377.8 million tonnes in 2025-26, but post-harvest losses, fragmented sourcing and weak processing limit value capture. Cluster infrastructure, traceability and retailer-linked supply chains could improve farm incomes, price stability and export growth.
What happened
India horticulture sector · India’s horticulture output is projected at 377.8 million tonnes in 2025-26, but post-harvest losses and fragmented supply chains
Key facts
- 377.8 million tonnes projected horticulture production in 2025-26
- 121.5 million tonnes of fruits
- 221.0 million tonnes of vegetables
- Post-harvest losses: 6-15% for fruits and 5-12% for vegetables
- ₹57,000 crore annual fruit and vegetable losses
- Farmers' share of consumer rupee: tomato 33%, onion 36%, potato 37%
- $1.82 billion fresh fruit and vegetable exports in FY25
Why this matters
Strategic buyers should target partnerships or acquisitions in produce aggregation, packhouses, traceability and regional processing to secure differentiated supply and capture more value from fresh produce.
What to watch
- Acceleration of government funding or approvals for packhouses, cold stores, reefer transport, food-processing clusters and farmer-producer organizations.
- Retailer and quick-commerce announcements of direct farm procurement, traceability programs or long-term grower partnerships.
- A sustained decline in fresh-produce shrink, rejection rates or farm-to-store lead times among organized retailers.
- Growth in frozen, dehydrated, pulp and ready-to-cook produce capacity and private-label launches.
- Export-policy changes, phytosanitary approvals and residue-compliance programs that raise demand for traceable horticulture supply.
- Repeated weather-driven price spikes in tomatoes, onions, potatoes or fruits that make contracted sourcing economically compelling.
- Prioritize direct-sourcing pilots in high-volume, high-loss categories such as tomatoes, onions, bananas, mangoes, potatoes and leafy vegetables.
- Partner with farmer-producer organizations, packhouse operators and cold-chain providers rather than building a fully owned farm-to-retail network immediately.
- Use grading, origin tracking and demand data to create tiered fresh-produce assortments: value, standard and premium traceable lines.
- Expand private-label frozen, pulped, dehydrated and ready-to-cook formats to convert seasonal oversupply into year-round inventory.
- Tie procurement contracts to quality specifications, harvest calendars and pre-agreed price bands to reduce spot-market exposure.
- Locate regional processing and consolidation capacity near horticulture clusters, not only near large consumption centers.