India's strawberry industry, heavily concentrated in the mountainous Mahabaleshwar region of Maharashtra, remains almost entirely dependent on imported plant varieties from the United States and Europe, according to a report by Priti Gupta for BBC Business. This reliance on foreign cultivars exposes farmers to high costs and climate risks, prompting a state-backed research initiative to develop India's first indigenous strawberry variety.
The farming challenge in Mahabaleshwar
Around 85% of India's strawberry cultivation takes place in the Mahabaleshwar region, where an altitude of more than 1,000m (3,280ft) provides a long, cool growing season from November to March, and light, well-drained soil is ideal for strawberries. Despite these advantages, farmers face significant challenges. Sheetal Danavle, who grows strawberries on half of her three-acre farm with her husband, told BBC: "If you have a field full of strawberries and sudden heavy rains hit, the entire crop is ruined and we have to bear massive losses."
Strawberry plants must be replaced every season, and farmers buy young plants from suppliers rather than growing from seed. For Danavle, that annual outlay is $2,500 (£1,900). She described it as a gamble: "If the season goes well, you can earn double your investment. But the climate makes it a huge gamble."
The propagation process: relying on foreign mother plants
India currently has no domestically developed strawberry variety. According to Nelson Sequeira, founder and director of Tara Farms Fresh, a licensed strawberry propagator, "We import the certified mother plant from the breeder abroad." These mother plants come from California, Florida, Italy, and Spain, where breeders spend 10 to 15 years developing top-quality fruit and patent their varieties.
Once imported, the plants undergo government quarantine before being planted in a nursery where each mother plant produces daughter plants. "One single imported mother plant becomes an engine. That single mother plant will shoot out runners to yield an average of 20 daughter plants – with some advanced growers pushing that up to 30 or 40," Sequeira explained. The operation is high-tech: plants are grown in split industrial pipes lined with coco-peat substrate derived from coconut husk, with precise drip-irrigation and fogging systems to control micro-climates.
Indigenous breeding effort: gamma irradiation at MPKV
Researchers at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth (MPKV), an agricultural university in Maharashtra, have partnered with the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) on a breeding experiment using controlled, low-dose gamma irradiation on plant tissues to induce stable genetic mutations. Dr Darshan Shashank Kadam, assistant professor of Horticulture at MPKV, said the goal is "to fast-track the development of India's first indigenous, climate-resilient strawberry cultivar that matches the large fruit size and firm texture of foreign varieties while natively tolerating Indian heatwaves."
Kadam acknowledged the process could take 10 or 15 years before tangible results emerge. In the near term, MPKV is working to help farmers with other improvements.
Implications for the industry
For commodity analysts and agribusiness executives tracking horticultural supply chains, India's dependence on imported strawberry varieties represents an ongoing cost and vulnerability. The $2,500 annual outlay per small farm for plants, plus the risk of climate-related loss, underscores the fragile economics of strawberry production. Any disruption to the supply of imported mother plants—whether from trade restrictions, plant disease, or patent disputes—could directly affect yield volumes. While the MPKV-BARC research is promising, its long timeline means that Indian strawberry production will remain tied to foreign breeders for at least another decade. Farmers, propagators like Tara Farms Fresh, and end buyers will continue to rely on varieties developed in California, Florida, Italy, and Spain, with all the associated import and licensing costs.
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