Agriculture & Agri-tech · Case study
A farmer company that kept the margin it created
1,840 member farmers selling banana and onion at mandi prices, with no storage, no grading and no bargaining position.
- Client
- Annapurna Agro Producer Company
- Location
- Jalgaon, Maharashtra
- Duration
- 13 months
- Engagement
- Project fee, part-funded by the FPO promotion grant
Headline result
+16%
Member realisation
Versus mandi sale, post-grading
The situation
What we walked into
Annapurna had been registered for three years with a functioning board but no infrastructure and no credit history. Members sold individually at distress prices during peak arrivals.
Two banks had declined loan applications, citing absent audited accounts and no demonstrable offtake.
An earlier consultant had produced a project report for a ₹9 crore integrated processing unit — an order of magnitude beyond what the FPO could operate or service.
What we did
The engagement, phase by phase
Including the phase the client least enjoyed, which in most of our case studies is the second one.
Phase 1 · Weeks 1–5
Governance before capital
Three years of accounts brought to audit, board processes documented, a transparent member pricing policy adopted, and a simple MIS installed. Unglamorous work, and the reason the third bank engaged at all.
Phase 2 · Weeks 4–9
Right-size the project
We replaced the ₹9 crore processing proposal with a ₹4.1 crore grading, packing and warehousing facility the FPO could staff and service, with structural provision for a processing phase two once a trading record existed.
Phase 3 · Weeks 6–14
Offtake before construction
Grade specifications agreed and indicative pricing settled with two institutional buyers and one exporter before the loan application was filed — which converted the lender conversation from speculative to evidenced.
Phase 4 · Months 4–13
AIF funding and commissioning
DPR and AIF application with 3% interest subvention and credit guarantee, sanctioned in 4.2 months. Construction, weighbridge, grading line and a 5,000 MT warehouse commissioned, with SOPs and a trained three-person operating team.
Measured outcome
The numbers, with their baselines
These are the metrics written into the engagement letter before work started.
₹4.1 Cr
Project funded
AIF term loan with 3% subvention
1,840 → 2,610
Member farmers
Growth after commissioning
-62%
Distress sale volume
Peak-arrival period
₹0 → ₹11.8 Cr
FPO turnover
First full year of operations
4.2 months
Time to sanction
After two prior rejections
₹4.9 Cr
Capex avoided
Versus the earlier over-scoped proposal
Engagement visual
The first report we paid for was a beautiful book for a plant we could never have run. This one was smaller, and the bank believed it.
Agriculture & Agri-tech
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