Wayanad farmers turn to value-added products to tap avocado market

ONCE dismissed as 'patti pazham' (dog fruit) in Wayanad's backyards, avocado is now re-emerging in new avatars—oil, pulp, smoothies, and even tea.

- LAKSHMI ATHIRA @Kalpetta

ONCE dismissed as 'patti pazham' (dog fruit) in Wayanad's backyards, avocado is now re-emerging in new avatars—oil, pulp, smoothies, and even tea. Farmers in the hill district, hit by a steep price crash, are betting on value-added products to rescue their crop and carve out premium markets.

The Wayanad Hills Farmer Producer Company Limited (WHFPCL), in collaboration with the Institute of Human Resources Development (IHRD), Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) and the Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), is spearheading the initiative to launch more than a dozen avocado-based innovations. "For the rest of Kerala, avocado might be considered an elite food. But here in Wayanad, we used to call it dog fruit. Not because it lacked value, but because we didn't know its value," WHFPCL chairman Sunil Kumar M R told TNIE.