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Fun, Food, Funda rock third Mapro Strawberry Festival
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Wednesday, 15 April, 2009, 08 : 00 AM [IST]
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Our Bureau, Mumbai
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The four-day "Mapro Strawberry Festival" was organised at Mapro Garden in Mahableshwer on April 10-14. The third edition was particularly dedicated to promote strawberry in India, fruit consumption and boost tourism of the city. The event was organised by Satara-based Mapro Foods Pvt Ltd, one of the leading fruit processors in the country. Addressing the media, Mayur Vora, managing director, Mapro Foods, said that we were pleased to once again organise the Strawberry Festival and provide thousands of visitors to this beautiful town an opportunity to learn more about this succulent fruit.
Mayur said, "In India, fruit and vegetables processing offers much more opportunity than any other food item. The Strawberry Festival has grown in size and we are glad that it has developed into an annual celebration and spread the strawberry culture across the country." The event was supported by the All India Strawberry Growers Association (AISGA) and Mahableshwer-based Hoteliers and Restaurants Association.
"The third edition is very special as we will be celebrating our golden jubilee in June (first week). In the case of last fiver years, we set up India's biggest state-of-the-art fruit processing plant for jams, confectioneries, crushes and squash at Panchgani," Vora added. According to the organisers, over 5,000 people a day visited the festival.
Balasaheb Bhilari, president, AIGSA, said, "We always seek to promote strawberry eating culture in India. Currently, Mahableshwer shares about 80% of the total strawberry production in the country. We import required material and California-based variety seed for strawberry cultivation in Mahableshwer which help us to produce high quality fruits." The All India Strawberry Growers Association (AISGA) is a Delhi-based association to promote and control strawberry cultivation in the country. At present, the association has over 1,350 members.
"Basically there are two varieties of strawberry available in India. One is from California (US) variety and the other is Australian variety (popularly known as Bangalore variety). Today, we say strawberry is a cash crop as it offers maximum number of harvests in a season. One acre of land produces about 3-4 lakh strawberry pieces in a season," S T Bhilari, a local farmer, told Food & Beverage News.
Further, the company also0 launches "Mazaana," dark chocolate coated almonds in a premium products range and "Kesar Sharbat," in the fruit juice segment. Nikunj Vora, manager, Mapro Garden, said that the brand Mazaana was a sub-brand of Mapro. The raw materials like almonds have been imported from the US and dark chocolates from Belgium, Ivory Coast, Madagascar and Malaysia.
Nikunj said, "In coming months we are planning to introduce pearlenes, raisins with dark chocolates and also entering into RTD (ready-to-drink) segment with strawberry, alphonso mango, litchi, NZ's kiwi flavour drink in the country." Mapro will target Mumbai, Pune and Delhi markets for its newly launched products.
The price range for Mazaana is about Rs 800-4,000 per kg, whereas Kesar Sharbat is available in 700 ml glass bottles at Rs 288. "In 2006, the international price for raw kesar (saffron) was about Rs 50,000 which rapidly soared to Rs 2,80,000 this year. According to experts, the prices may go up to Rs 3,50,000 in the coming two months," Nikunj added.
Mapro Strawberry Festival included an exhibition in which over 50 products like raw strawberries, strawberry pizza, strawberry bhel, strawberry sandwich, strawberry with cream, strawberry ice cream, strawberry milk shake and other delicious items made by strawberry were displayed.
"Strawberry with cream is 30 years old recipe which is yet to popular across the country. I am sure that fruit festivals like Mapro Strawberry Festival will help the local strawberry growers and creative recipe makers to represent strawberry and various items made by strawberry at national level," Riyaz Dange, owner of Cream Corner Garden, local ice-cream parlour told Food & Beverage News.
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