From barren land to thriving ₹ 1 crore avocado business — How Bhopal youth explored the market, farming after British education | Today’s news
Avocado, a superfood with immense health benefits, caught the attention of British marketing graduate Harshit Godha. This popular fruit became a turning point in his life as he noticed a higher demand in the market than the available supply and decided to solve the problem. From importing seeds to running ₹1 crore business, let’s follow the journey of the Director and CEO of Galil Avo India.
What piqued his curiosity was the “Sourced from Israel” label, a life-changing moment that motivated him to research avocado growing techniques and reach out to Israeli farmers directly. During this time, Harshit was 22 years old and was interning in London. When he decided to disrupt the market, he spent a month in Israel to learn about the industry, The Better India reported.
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After gaining practical experience, determined to do something big, he completed his studies and returned to India. In order to produce the superfood locally, he invested ₹50 lakh in the venture in 2019 and converted a 5-acre barren land in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh into a thriving avocado orchard using a hydroponic system.
Despite bureaucratic hurdles, delays and numerous roadblocks, Harshit paid no heed to the hurdles and finally imported his first 1,800 seedlings after a three-year wait. In addition, he wrote blogs, e-books, shared his journey on social media, started a YouTube channel to guide aspiring avocado growers, answer farmers’ questions and build a community around avocado growing.
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In 2021, he founded the Indo-Israel Avocado Nursery in Bhopal, which now has over 20,000 plants. Although farmers in Gujarat, Assam and Sikkim also grow this fruit, its nursery grown plants give better results due to advanced technology and ensure high quality disease resistant avocado plants.
Israel vs. India avocado growing methods
In an interview with the BBC, he revealed that his business, now valued at ₹1 crore, supplied around 18,000 avocado plants to farmers across India, all the seedlings being international varieties like Hass and Pinkerton.
Traditionally, avocado trees were planted among other shade crops in India. “Israel grows avocados on around 13,000 hectares – a small country with almost no rainfall for eight months of the year. This is precisely why Israel’s avocado technology is the most advanced in the world,” BBC quoted Godha as saying.
Describing the challenges of running a commercial orchard, he said, “When you put in a professional orchard, you have to know pruning techniques. A tree can grow up to 25 feet in six to seven years, and harvesting at 25 feet is almost impossible.” According to Godha, Israel follows agricultural methods that are very different from the traditional way of growing avocados in India.
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In addition to “aggressive” pruning to the appropriate height, there are a number of factors to consider when planting avocados. Pointing out a botanical detail that can make or break a profitable, high-yielding orchard, he added, “an avocado tree cannot pollinate itself easily. To produce fruit, two different varieties of avocado trees must be planted close together. One variety must be open as a female at the same time the other variety releases pollen as a male.”
