New Delhi: Kochi-based entrepreneur Umesh Damodaran turned an ordinary request from a neighbour into an unusual agricultural business. His startup, Rent a Tree, allows people to lease mango trees and receive the fruits harvested from those trees.
Umesh ran an edu-tech startup in Bengaluru between 2018 and 2023. During those years he travelled frequently between Bengaluru and Kochi. On one such trip he bought export-quality Alphonso mangoes from Palakkad in Kerala and shared them with his neighbours and colleagues in Bengaluru, according to a report in The Hindu.
One neighbour liked the mangoes so much that he asked Umesh to bring more on his next trip. Later the neighbour asked if he could reserve the entire harvest from one tree. That question gave Umesh the idea to start a business where customers could lease mango trees.
“That family became our first customer. We were not aware of the commercial viability of this idea. But we soon realised, with us, each customer had a story behind their produce and enough fruits for themselves and to gift others,” says Umesh, who leads a team of ten people.
How the tree leasing model works
Rent a Tree manages about 250 acres of Alphonso mango farms in Ratnagiri in Maharashtra, Dindigul in Tamil Nadu and Palakkad in Kerala. Customers can lease trees through the company’s website and receive the mangoes produced by those trees.
The platform offers three categories based on expected yield. The base category produces 30 to 50 kg of mangoes. The standard category produces 45 to 75 kg. The max category produces 60 to 90 kg. Customers receive updates about the status of their trees several times each month.
The harvest period lasts around four months. Mango picking begins in February in Palakkad and continues until June in Tamil Nadu. Fruits are harvested every two weeks during the season and then shipped to customers across India.
About 160 customers have rented trees so far. The price begins from Rs 10,300 and rises as the harvest season approaches. The company has limited the number of rentable trees to 200.
Focus on naturally ripened mangoes
Umesh says the venture also tries to solve a common problem in the mango supply chain. Fully ripe mangoes often spoil during transport, so farmers harvest fruits earlier than full maturity.
“To establish a startup, it needs to address a problem. We discovered that it was impossible to bring fully mature mangoes to the market due to their perishable nature. This leads to fruit being harvested at 75% maturity. People choose artificial methods to ripen fruits, which involve the use of harmful chemicals. This affects the health of the customers, and it also means that no one gets to taste a naturally ripe mango,” says Umesh.
“So ethically, we sell only those mangoes that are plucked.”
Helping farmers reduce dependence on middlemen
The company leases land from farmers and manages orchards with the help of local workers. Umesh says this model helps farmers avoid financial pressure from middlemen and financiers who often control the sale of produce.
“The first and best harvest is often acquired by the financier, who pays them in credit. The market might be down for the next yield, and the farmers convert it into pulp to preserve it. The pulp-making machinery is also under the control of the financiers, further increasing their debts,” says Umesh.
Future plans for the startup
Umesh says the biggest challenge for the startup is low public awareness. Some similar ventures in the past collected money from customers but failed to deliver the promised harvest.
“We are trying to get the help of the governments to give our operations more legitimacy,” says Umesh.
“We have to build trust with the customer; that’s the only way to grow. We plan to sell other fruits too, with farmers willing to supply us with exotic fruits like rambutan and mangosteen,” Umesh says.
The mango trees are listed on the company’s website rentatree.in.https://rentatree.in/