When farmers own the company: The Sahyadri Farms story

Somewhere between a two-acre vineyard in Nashik and a supermarket shelf in Rotterdam, something structurally impossible is happening – and happening at scale. 

Grapes grown by Indian smallholder farmers, most of them cultivating less than two acres, are arriving in premium European retail chains, meeting the same quality and traceability standards as produce from the world’s most industrialized farms. Behind this is Sahyadri Farms: a company majority owned by its farmers, built on the conviction that collective action can turn subsistence agriculture into a globally competitive business. 

We sat down with Vilas Shinde – the founder who shares his journey of debt, partnership, and a shipment of grapes that got rejected in the Netherlands – to understand how Sahyadri grew into a nearly INR 2,500 crore (EUR 230 million) enterprise, what Incofin’s role has been in that growth, and what comes next. 

The origin – “As a small farmer, farming is a loss-making activity.” 

Vilas Shinde did not set out to build India’s largest farmer producer company. He simply set out to survive. 

He grew up in a joint family, among six siblings, each of whom had two acres of land in Nashik, Maharashtra. He was driven, and his family wanted him to study, venture out, and get a job. But he wanted to farm, so he trained as an agricultural engineer.  In the early 2000s, he tried his hand at everything – commercial crops, dairy operations, vermicompost production. None of it worked. By the time he was 25, he had accumulated INR 75 lakh (EUR 140,000) in debt.  

“As a small farmer, farming is a loss-making activity,” he says. “The question was: how to make it profitable? On one side, you cannot increase the land size – land fragmentation is happening, people depending on farming is increasing. So another route is to bring people together, increase the land parcel, and create efficiencies.” 

In 2004, he convinced nine other farmers from his village and neighbouring areas to pool their grape harvests and export directly to the Netherlands. The first shipments failed. 

The first container was scheduled to arrive on 8 March. On the 9th, an email arrived: the quality wasn’t up to standard. The buyer refused the next three containers. The group was left with losses and debt. Vilas had never been abroad, but he flew to the Netherlands to see for himself – his first trip, visa obtained the day before, travelling to Mumbai by hitching a ride on a truck at 4am. He discovered the market had crashed and the buyer had transferred the losses onto them. The shipment was a write-off. Shinde sold his own land to repay the farmers – a decision that nearly ended his career but ultimately defined his leadership. 

The failures taught him something critical: individual farmers could not meet the quality, safety, and traceability standards that premium markets demand. Only a collective could build the infrastructure – cold chains, packhouses, residue testing labs, digital traceability – that global buyers require. 

“We kept learning and improving ourselves at every level,” he says. “At the farm level, at the packhouse level. And that gave confidence that as a small farmer, if you come together, you can create a standard that attracts global players – and then you can also get the premium.” 

What began in 2004 as an experiment among 10 grape farmers had, by the time the company was formally registered in 2011, grown to 110. Sahyadri, a Farmers Producer Company, was born. Revenue in those early years was modest, but the model was taking shape. 

The model – Building the “Amul of horticulture” 

Vilas shares his inspiration: Dr. Verghese Kurien and the Amul cooperative that transformed India’s dairy sector. 

“Milk and horticulture are two different commodities,” he says. “In horticulture, products are perishable like milk, but they are seasonal. If you are making any business with a seasonal crop, out of 365 days, you will work for 60 days. The remaining 300 days, your infrastructure, your labour, your resources – everything will remain idle.” 

The solution was multi-crop integration. Rather than depending on grapes alone, Sahyadri brought together farmers growing eight different crops – grapes, pomegranates, bananas, mangoes, citrus, cashew, tomatoes, and sweetcorn – each with different harvest seasons. This meant year-round utilization of processing infrastructure and diversified risk at both the company and farm level. 

“Our farmers are not dependent on one crop,” Vilas explains. “There are options now for them, and all options have the same ecosystem of support.” 

What Vilas did borrow from Amul was the culture: professional management, ethical governance, transparency. Today, Sahyadri’s 22,500 farmer-members collectively hold a majority of the equity, each with voting rights. 

The company has also built a technology backbone that would be unusual even for a large commercial agricultural enterprise. Through digital platforms – FarmSetu for crop advisory and Vesatogo for supply chain traceability – and a network of IoT sensors and automatic weather stations deployed across member farms, Sahyadri tracks produce from sowing to shelf. 

“Technology is a real game changer,” says Vilas. “But independently, a technology startup in agriculture finds it very difficult to survive. With the collaborative approach – the collective providing the scale, the startup providing the solution – that is the way forward for Indian agriculture.”

A turning point that “opens the way for all cooperative organizations” 

By 2021, Sahyadri had grown to approximately INR 740 crore (EUR 68 million) in revenue on its own capital and internal resources. But Vilas recognized that the next orbit of growth would require institutional investment and external expertise. 

The problem was structural. As a farmer producer company, Sahyadri could not bring in private equity investors. The solution – creating a subsidiary public limited company through the National Company Law Tribunal, then demerging the post-harvest business into it – had never been done in India. 

“It took almost two years,” Vilas says. “But when it opened, it opened the way for all cooperative organizations. I think it is a big milestone for overall Indian agriculture.” 

In 2022, Sahyadri Farms Post Harvest Care Limited raised INR 310 crore from a consortium of impact-focused investors led by Incofin, alongside Korys, Proparco, and FMO. It was the first time a farmer-owned company in India had raised private equity capital. 

The partnership – “Incofin is the major instrument for us” 

For Vilas, the choice of investor was as important as the capital itself. 

“My personal thought was very clear,” he says. “Philosophically, we should have alignment with our investors – investors who are looking for social impact and who have a clear value system like us. They should come on board.” 

He describes meeting Rahul Rai, Managing Partner at Incofin India, well before the formal fundraising process began. “During that meeting itself, I got this feeling that these are the right persons who understand our pain points, who understand the basic Indian agriculture problems, and who see where the solution is. There was a clear alignment.” 

Since the investment, Incofin has played a role that extends well beyond the equity ticket. Rahul Rai sits on the board and is actively involved in strategic discussions – from corporate direction and cash flow management to advising on the investor composition for Sahyadri’s subsequent funding rounds. 

“Whenever there are complicated situations, we always prefer to discuss with Rahul first,” Shinde says. “Incofin is playing a very active role in Sahyadri’s journey – on strategy, on further investment, and on day-to-day things.” 

The partnership has also generated tangible technical support. Incofin introduced Sahyadri to British International Investment (BII) for a technical assistance project exploring microalgae-based effluent treatment – a first-of-its-kind initiative in India. The project treats wastewater through microalgae cultivation, then converts the biomass into bio-stimulants for agricultural use. After three years of validation, the resulting chlorella-based product recently received government gazette approval. 

“This is the first of its kind in the country,” says Vilas. “But because of Sahyadri’s data and validation, now at least 10 such projects will come in India in the next two years.” 

Through Incofin’s network, Sahyadri has also connected with agritech companies and other partners, strengthening the broader innovation ecosystem around the company. 

The capital multiplier effect has been significant. Incofin’s lead investment was of INR 67 crore (EUR 8 million). It created an investor consortium with Proparco, FMO & Korys, enabling the closure of the INR 310 crore investment round in 2022. In December 2024, a second round of INR 390 crore followed from responsAbility and GEF Capital Partners, with all existing investors participating. Total institutional capital raised: approximately INR 700 crore – a 10x multiplier on Incofin’s original ticket. 

Asked whether he would recommend Incofin to other agricultural entrepreneurs, Vilas says: “Definitely. Compared to any other investor I have met, Incofin is always a better option for Indian agriculture startups. They have a deep understanding of the local situation. They understand the agri-food sector in a better way.” 

Impact: “My parents never imagined their son’s produce would travel abroad” 

Sahyadri’s story proves: farming can be profitable and dignified for smallholders. 

The economic impact for member farmers has been substantial. Sahyadri provides stable, predictable pricing and payment cycles – replacing the volatility of mandi trading – and gives farmers access to premium export markets they could never reach individually. 

Behind the aggregate numbers are individual stories.