“Cultivation stops completely through summer and monsoon months, because open-field strawberry growing cannot survive that kind of heat and rainfall.”
For generations, this has been the cycle of strawberry farming in Mahabaleshwar. When the weather turns warm, and the rains arrive, the strawberry season comes to an end. But 57-year-old Ketan Sodha, who had never farmed before 2016, wanted to see whether the season could last longer.
A fourth-generation Mumbaikar from a business family with no farming background, Ketan completed his BCom from K C College under Mumbai University. He spent years connecting agricultural landowners with buyers across Maharashtra. Then, in 2016, demonetisation changed the business he knew.
“What was available was Rs 25,000 an acre. In two years, it went up to Rs 3 lakh,” he recalls of the agricultural land boom he had witnessed. But when demonetisation hit, that business slowed dramatically. “I had to start something new, so I decided to switch over to Mahabaleshwar for strawberries,” he tells The Better India.
Today, his venture, Berry Fresh Agrotech LLP, has a soilless polyhouse in Mahabaleshwar with the capacity to grow 19,500 strawberry plants. The farm has reportedly produced around 8,000 kg of fruit and generated Rs 44 lakh in sales.
But getting here began with 5,000 plants, a failed crop, and a man from Mumbai learning to farm for the first time.
How a first-time farmer learnt from his mistakes
His work dealing in agricultural land took him across Maharashtra, usually within 200 km of Mumbai. One of the routes he travelled frequently was towards Goa, passing through Poladpur and the foothills of Mahabaleshwar.
57-year-old Ketan Sodha, who had never farmed before 2016, wanted to see whether the season could last longer.
For someone used to Mumbai, Mahabaleshwar felt like another world.
“I was born and raised in Mumbai, so coming here was a great delight for me. The city is hot, humid and congested, whereas spending a night in the cool hills around Poladpur felt like a completely different world,” he admits.
He first became interested in strawberries around 2012-13. After his land business slowed in 2016, he bought 5,000 plants from a local farmer and tried growing them himself.
“The first year actually was a disaster,” he says. But he did not walk away.
In 2017, he increased the number of plants to 10,000. This time, the results were different. He began producing more fruit than many conventional growers around him who had been cultivating strawberries for decades.
“My name began spreading in the area, and people started saying, ‘This guy seems to know something we don’t,’” he recalls. Some farmers began approaching him for partnerships, and he accepted a few of those opportunities.
By 2019, he had entered into a partnership and started cultivating strawberries across nine acres. By the 2020-21 season, his operations had expanded to almost 40 acres across three sites. He was also working with imported planting material and developing his own nurseries.
But even as his farming operations grew, the weather remained a challenge he could not control.
The rain spoilt his hard work
Mahabaleshwar may be known for its strawberries, but the crop is traditionally grown in open fields. That leaves the plants exposed to everything the weather brings.
Ketan repeatedly saw the same problem during the years he spent growing the fruit conventionally. Unseasonal rain would arrive around November and early December, just when the crop was reaching its peak. The rain could set the crop back by 15 to 20 days.
“You need to recover the crop, take care of it, spray some fungicides, because the unexpected rain creates a lot of nuisance,” he says.
There was another limitation too. Once summer and the monsoon arrived, conventional strawberry cultivation stopped.
He began wondering whether changing the environment in which strawberries grew could help him extend the season, rather than leaving his harvest at the mercy of the weather.
4 countries, countless lessons and one Indian challenge
In 2021-22, he travelled to Italy, Spain, Egypt and Turkey. He met nursery owners and hydroponic growers and spoke to consultants from several countries, including Israel, the UK, New Zealand, Australia and the US.
He came back with plenty of information. But he also came back with an important realisation. A system that worked perfectly in another country could not blindly be copied in India.
“My country’s challenges are very different from what they are working on in their own native area,” he says.
He began developing a model suited to the conditions in Mahabaleshwar.
Berry Fresh Agrotech LLP was incorporated on 14 October 2022. He had already been cultivating strawberries conventionally with local farmers. But the company’s soilless plantation began in November 2024.
Before the first plants went into the new system, he spent around three-and-a-half months searching for suitable land, despite having worked in the region for years.
He eventually leased two acres. On this land, he built a 1,500-square-metre polyhouse designed to accommodate 19,500 strawberry plants.
And this time, there would be no soil.
A strawberry farm without soil
Inside his polyhouse, the plants grow in cocopeat, a growing medium made from coconut husk.
Traditional strawberry fields use the same soil year after year, increasing the risk of soil-borne diseases. Growing the plants in cocopeat helps reduce this risk.
The plants are grown under a retractable roof in an openable polyhouse. A misting system helps manage the growing environment.
The farm is also located at an altitude of around 1,400 metres. Even when temperatures rise suddenly in the plains, Mahabaleshwar’s elevation gives the plants a natural advantage.
Then comes water.
Through an automated fertigation system, which delivers water and nutrients together, each plant receives approximately 75 ml of nutrient solution over 24 hours. His farm also harvests rainwater and stores it for use. Before entering the growing system, the water is treated with ozone.
Today, his venture, Berry Fresh Agrotech LLP, has a soilless polyhouse in Mahabaleshwar with the capacity to grow 19,500 strawberry plants.
This allows him to manage the water supply while reducing dependence on external sources or groundwater.
“The plant is never stressed by too much or too little water,” he explains.
Together, the soilless growing medium, measured nutrients, protected environment and milder temperatures help Ketan keep his strawberry plants growing during periods when conventional cultivation stops.
“The real innovation here is not one single trick, but removing every variable, one by one, that used to force conventional growers to stop,” he explains.
There are parts of the process he does not disclose. Those, he says, are the lessons he has gathered through years of experimentation and practical work.
And much of that learning came from problems he had to solve himself.
When everything had to be rebuilt
He had initially expected specialised vendors to provide much of the technology required for the farm.
Instead, several systems needed to be fixed and recalibrated.
The polyhouse took more than six months to complete. The automation and irrigation systems also required considerable attention. Even finding suitable hydroponic-grade fertilisers proved difficult.
Eventually, he and his team began inspecting, repairing and adjusting the pipes, valves, sensors, controllers and irrigation lines themselves.
“We started this journey to grow strawberries, not to become experts in polyhouse construction, irrigation, automation and fertigation,” he says.
“When a problem arises, we don’t have to wait for someone to fly in or send a technician,” he says. “We understand our systems because we have rebuilt many of them ourselves.”
The entire setup required an investment in the seven-figure range, although he does not want to disclose the exact amount. He viewed the first facility as a place to experiment and learn, rather than recover the investment immediately.
Testing 19 varieties for Indian conditions
Ketan is among only around 12 to 15 growers in India involved in importing strawberry planting material.
Berry Fresh is currently conducting trials involving 19 strawberry varieties from countries including Florida, Spain, Italy, Uruguay and Japan. This season, the farm has also added a variety from the Netherlands.
Different varieties respond differently to climate and disease, and can vary in yield, taste and fruit quality. A variety that performs well abroad may struggle in Indian conditions.
Through these trials, Ketan wants to identify which varieties grow best here and eventually make better planting material accessible to other farmers. He is also exploring the possibility of securing exclusive rights to some foreign genetics for India as he works towards expanding the business.
The plants are grown under a retractable roof in an openable polyhouse.
From a failed crop to Rs 44 lakh in sales
The current facility has an installed capacity of 19,500 plants and operates at around 90 percent capacity.
For the period from January 2024 to December 2025, Ketan reports an average harvest of 408 grams per plant, with production of approximately 3.2 kg per square metre.
Across the production figures shared by Berry Fresh, the venture has reportedly harvested approximately 8,000 kg of strawberries and generated around Rs 44 lakh in revenue through business-to-business (B2B) and direct-to-consumer (B2C) sales.
The strawberries are sold at an approximate price of Rs 400 to Rs 600 per kg, depending on the customer and order. Around 60 percent of sales are B2C, while 40 percent are B2B.
Its customers are spread across Mumbai, Mahabaleshwar, Delhi, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Indore, Udupi and Goa.
There is no comprehensive digital marketing operation behind those sales. Ketan admits he has no social media presence. Instead, his customers have largely found him through word of mouth. And many of them have stayed.
‘Do not pay if you do not like it’
Prashant Tatia (54), from Bhopal, runs a premium fruit and dry-fruit shop. He has known Ketan since 2021 and started purchasing strawberries from Berry Fresh in January 2025.
Berry Fresh Agrotech LLP was incorporated on 14 October 2022.
“The strawberries produced by the farm are distinctly different from conventionally grown open-field varieties,” says Prashant. “They stand out for their vibrant colour, natural shine, uniform shape, exceptional taste, higher sweetness, longer shelf life, and outstandingly rich aroma.”
For Prashant, the consistency matters just as much as the taste. He says the quality remains consistent even during the off-season. “What sets Berry Fresh apart is its year-round availability and consistently high quality,” he says.
Luvjeet Singh, an imported fruit dealer from Vashi, Mumbai, began purchasing from the venture in November 2025.
Ketan had contacted him the previous month. “He simply quoted, ‘Do not pay if you do not like it,’” Luvjeet recalls. “I was surprised by his confidence, hence thought of trying. It was worth his claim.”
He says the berries differ in their colour, shine, shape, sweetness, aroma and shelf life, and believes his customers are willing to pay for better-quality produce.
In Ahmedabad, 25-year-old Apurva Shelat came across the business through a common friend. She began buying the strawberries in November 2025.
“After talking to the founder, I developed trust, so I decided to try his strawberries,” she says. “I found that the quality was much better, and my community also liked them very much.”
She has also visited the farm. For someone who had never seen this kind of strawberry cultivation before, the experience changed the way she looked at farming.
“I was impressed by how clean, well-organised and professionally managed the farm was. Seeing the hydroponic system for the first time also changed my understanding of modern farming,” she says.
His next bet: 2 lakh plants across 5 acres
For now, Berry Fresh operates only in Mahabaleshwar. But the founder is already thinking beyond the 19,500 plants.
He is currently at the investor-discussion stage for a proposed five-acre facility with a minimum capacity of around 200,000 plants. He wants to build the next farm using everything he has learnt from the first, with the hope of eventually replicating the model in other parts of India where the climate is suitable.
The opportunity, in his view, is to grow strawberries during months when fewer farmers can supply them, and when the fruit can fetch better prices.
“If we can extend the production window at both ends, early fruit before the regular season starts, and no-season fruit after everyone else has stopped, both of those windows fetch the highest value in the market,” he says.
It is a different life from the one he knew in Mumbai. Ketan had no family farming background, and his first attempt at growing strawberries failed. Today, he spends his days learning how to help thousands of plants thrive in the hills he has come to love.
On this land, he built a 1,500-square-metre polyhouse designed to accommodate 19,500 strawberry plants.
“Every morning, birds wake me up before any alarm does,” he says. “The air here is crisp, the spring water is clean, and there is a kind of peace around this farm that you cannot buy in Mumbai.”
For Ketan, the next challenge is taking what he has learnt from this first polyhouse to a much larger farm, while continuing to explore how far Mahabaleshwar’s strawberry season can stretch.
All pictures courtesy Ketan Sodha.
