Agritech DeHaat acquires Freshtrop Fruits’ export business

DeHaat acquires Freshtrop's export business

Agritech company DeHaat on November 14 said it has acquired a part of Freshtrop Fruit, absorbing its export network and grading, packing and precooling centres and the top leadership team, in an all-cash deal.

In a statement, the company said the investment will help DeHaat with grape exports from India to the globe and build R&D capabilities to grow new varieties of grapes.

“We are super excited about this collaboration to grow the grapes and overall agri-export business together. Each member of the Freshtrop’s founding family along with the larger team will continue to remain actively involved in the business and DeHaat will bring its network and resources for market expansion, development of new grape varieties & technology-led deeper pre-harvest support to the associated farmers,” said Shashank Kumar, co-founder and CEO, DeHaat in the statement.

Founded in 1992 by Ashok Motiani and his family, Freshtrop Fruits Ltd is an exporter of grapes and other fruits like pomegranate and mango from India to supermarket chains in the UK, European Union and other countries. The company is publicly listed and is based in Ahmedabad.

Kumar founded Dehaat, which means rural in Hindi, in 2012 with co-founders Shyam Sundar Singh, Amrendra Singh, Adarsh Srivastava and Abhishekh Dokania joining the venture later. The company, which was initially headquartered in Patna, follows a two-pronged business model, selling inputs to farmers and then purchasing their produce and selling it to bulk buyers. Of late, it has also started exporting this produce.

In the statement, Kumar added, “We established our export business 18 months ago and are today exporting more than 20 agri-produce from India to the Middle East, the UK and the EU. We see strong synergies around the complementary core competencies between DeHaat and Freshtrop.”

The company also said that the partnership between the companies will operationalise from the upcoming grapes harvesting season.

This is DeHaat’s seventh acquisition deal overall and fourth in the output domain post the twin acquisitions of YCook India Pvt Ltd and FieldFresh Foods last year, the company added.