Mumbai: Tata Chemicals Ltd and Ireland-based Total Produce have launched a joint venture company, Khet-Se Agriproduce, which will engage in the wholesale business of sourcing, packaging and distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables in Punjab.

Khet-Se set up its first procurement and distribution centre at Malerkotla and hopes to cater to the business-to-business requirements of Ludhiana and Patiala, it said in a statement.

The company plans to start operations in Mumbai in the next six months.

"Being in the forefront of this exciting time provides us with an opportunity to innovate and create a new business model that will be a first of its kind in the country," Khet-Se Agriproduce India chairman Homi Khusrokhan said in the statement.

"There is nothing more satisfying for our business than the fact that it is contributing to the upliftment of the farmers and small retailers and enabling them to grow, not by handing out sops, but by making the basic tenets of their business self sustaining," he added.

The distribution centre has the facility of sorting, grading and packing of all fresh produce with four ripening chambers of 10 MT capacity each (to ripen fruits like banana) and an equal number of cold storages of 25 MT each.

Khet-Se will only cater to registered B2B customers such as small retailers, organised retailers the institutional segments ccomprising of hotels, restaurants and caterers.

"The initiative aims to bridge the gap between producer and end consumer which will significantly increase efficiencies, improve shelf-life and reduce product loss in the supply chain," Khet Agriproduce India chief executive G R Goves said.